Town Considerations: The…

Town Considerations:

The Town of Oakville is concerned with the proposed legislation as the changes conflict with both the Provincial Planning Statement (PPS), 2024 and the Town of Oakville’s Official Plans, and for their potential to introduce unsustainable water systems.

Comments to Province:

Referring to non-municipal communal drinking water and wastewater systems as “public utilities” is misleading. The Town recommends using terminology consistent with defined terms in the PPS, 2024, including “private communal sewage services” and “private communal water services”.

Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 Conflicts

The proposed changes undermine the policy wording in section 3.6.2 of the PPS, 2024 that recognizes municipal servicing is the preferred form of servicing for settlement areas to ensure adequate oversight, health and safety and environmental protection. “Municipal sewage services” and “municipal water services” explicitly include both centralized and decentralized servicing systems, which further goes against the rationale for non-municipal servicing.

Town of Oakville Official Plan Conflict

The Town of Oakville Official Plans require municipal servicing for development in the settlement area.

While the proposed changes may therefore have limited applicability in Oakville given this requirement and the size of the settlement area, the introduction of such a system could be applicable in upstream and adjacent municipalities that have more rural land bases. Halton Hills, Burlington, and Milton are currently serviced for water and wastewater by Halton Region, and alongside Oakville, may have more pronounced servicing obstacles to development. The proposed changes introduce increased risk to the connected water systems. The changes also support increased urban sprawl and will exacerbate regional traffic challenges.

The Town does not support the proposed changes as they will:

Introduce water quality risks in a connected water resource system;

Support unsustainable development outside of planned growth centres (i.e., sprawl) in conflict with the PPS, 2024; and,

Exacerbate regional traffic challenges.

There are already frameworks in place for communal water and wastewater systems subject to municipal approval. The Town welcomes additional supports for municipal servicing in lieu of the proposed changes.