For 12 years, the Town of Innisfil has been trying to expand the boundaries of the Innisfil Heights strategic employment lands. And for years, the request languished on the desks of a succession of Ministers of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
That all changed on April 30 of this year, when Minister Steve Clark announced that the boundary would be expanded to include another 200 hectares of land along the Highway 400 corridor.
Playing a key role in that decision was first-term Barrie-Innisfil MPP, Andrea Khanjin.
“When I first got elected, I sat down with members of (Innisfil) Council and (Chief Administrative Officer) Jason Reynar, and they took me over historical issues,” Khanjin said. One of those issues was the size of the strategic employment lands at Innisfil Heights.
Becoming familiar with the challenge – the high cost of providing municipal wastewater servicing to a relatively small area of employment lands, and the lack of larger properties available within the employment area, which led to “prime employment lands sitting there idle” – Khanjin decided to make it “a key priority.”
She met with the minister, to “put it on his radar,” and raised the question: “How do you get a project that’s been sitting there for decades back on track?”
In fact, “There was appetite to have it happen all along,” she said. The problem was that there were certain obstacles, “things that had to be checked off, issues that were outstanding,” that stood in the way of a resolution.
The issues had to do largely with planning and appeals: the town’s Official Plan amendment relating to the employment lands “languished in the appeals process,” Khanjin said.
The solution came through a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO), cutting through the red tape.
Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin confirmed that the issue was a disconnect between the boundaries of Innisfil Heights as set out in the town's 2009 Official Plan Amendment 1, and the Provincial Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Simcoe County. The provincial government at the time appealed OPA 1, and "that is where it languished," she said.
"We made successive asks to try to solve the boundary issue," Mayor Dollin said. "This government had a fresh look at it, the town provided additional justification" - and the MZO reopened the policy and changed the boundaries without the need for OPA1.
MPP Khanjin noted that 80 percent of Innisfil residents commute to jobs outside of the municipality. Expanding the strategic employment lands will increase the potential for local jobs, and residents’ opportunity to “work, live and play, and raise your children in Innisfil.”
The employment lands were not the only ‘historical issue’ that the MPP has been delving into. Khanjin was able to facilitate a similar resolution to find a path forward for Tollendale Village II, at the north end of Innisfil, and a new race track facility in Oro-Medonte.
“Simcoe County Region was sort of neglected for a while,” by the province, Khanjin said. “We’ve got to wake up.”
Still on her to-do list is what she called “stick-handling” for a new GO Train station in Innisfil, “to make sure we get a shovel in the ground.”
Said Khanjin, “The employment land is great – it’s future jobs – but we know people commute every day,” and Innisfil needs a GO train station now, to make that commute easier.
It’s all about having the vision and working with the town, the MPP said, and “opening up people’s eyes to Innisfil.”
