We sincerely appreciate your early support and encouragement of this campaign. We depend on your involvement in taking on important issues together.

The Province says that it won’t impose a one-size-fits-all approach on the housing issue. We are pleased that the government has listened to a number of our concerns over the Housing Task Force Recommendations.

Among the highlights, the legislation being brought forward doesn't change Heritage protections and it maintains the character of established neighborhoods. Our local voice and our official plan, Livable Oakville, remain intact and we can continue on the path of intensification around our transportation hubs. 

We Love Oakville will temporarily suspend this campaign.
  
We made this decision because the provincial government has moved to enact complicated new legislation which they claim will help solve out-of-control housing costs that impact so many who need affordable places to live.

The legislation is loosely based on 55 far-reaching recommendations made by the Housing Affordability Task Force which was quietly set up last December. 

We are relieved  that the government has acknowledged the importance of input and involvement of local municipalities and the public and has promised not to make decisions unilaterally. 

We thank the government  for making this issue a priority and not pursuing a number of radical recommendations that would have been damaging for our neighbourhoods. These appear to have been set aside for now. We also thank the government as they now seem anxious to make this issue a priority.

We strongly support more affordable housing and many of the recommendations, as long as they are planned locally and not a one-size-fits-all solution to growth. 

But we have a number of ongoing concerns and will be watching developments closely. 

The government has stated that the Task Force recommendations will be their “roadmap” for future initiatives. This leaves the door open for some severe moves including handing over major planning decisions to the development industry, disrupting existing neighbourhoods and accelerating urban sprawl across natural areas and farms. None of these have been addressed in the current legislation.

As well, we don’t believe that this legislation will have any significant positive impact on making housing more affordable.

We Love Oakville reached out several times to our two Oakville MPPs – Stephen Crawford and Effie Triantafilopoulos - to discuss our concerns before we started this campaign. Unfortunately, they didn’t or couldn’t make time to meet with us.

We promise to continue to monitor the situation and we will be ready to re-engage if and when it’s needed.

Thank you!
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