CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about the Poplar Village rezoning, published Nov. 17.
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This development could be a very good thing for Collingwood in the end, but the process leading to its approval has not inspired confidence.
To recap the action so far: the previous town council threw a last-minute forward pass to the province to expedite the project, which will make it more difficult for the newly elected town council to negotiate further conditions with the developer. The town’s integrity commissioner called this decision “opportunistic.” The ink on that was barely dry when the minister of municipal affairs and housing approved the fast-tracking of the development. Compared to the usual pace of government decision making, the speed of this move was remarkable. So was the timing, as the new council was meeting the same day to review the previous decision.
Now that the province is accountable for whatever happens with this project, will it also write a happy ending to the story by approving a new hospital on the Poplar site? If not, there was no clear reason for rushing such an important planning decision.
David Howden
Collingwood
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