ICYMI: County deserves credit, support for housing, not just cities: warden

This article was previously published on EloraFergusToday.

COUNTY OF WELLINGTON – As new developments continue to pop up throughout Wellington County, Warden Andy Lennox wants local municipalities to work together so the province can understand and support their contributions to the housing supply. 

Providing an update to the Township of Wellington North council on last week's Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, Lennox said the County of Wellington deserves more provincial support and recognition as it continues to make small but significant contributions to the local housing supply. 

“It’s become clear to me that we in rural Ontario are not getting the credit we deserve for building housing in our communities,” said Lennox during the meeting. 

Using the City of Guelph as an example, Lennox said despite the city having a "slightly higher population" compared to Wellington County, the county is anticipated to absorb at least a 10 per cent higher growth rate in residential population over the next planning horizon without provincial support. 

This is equivalent to the amount of homes Guelph is expected to absorb, said Lennox. 

“Unfortunately, when we send in an application and Centre Wellington sends in an application and Erin sends in an application and Mapleton sends in an application, those get reviewed individually," said Lennox. "But if you look at it collectively, the province hasn’t assigned Wellington County one of their housing targets and they are paying a lot of attention to those targets but yet we’re delivering more housing per 100,000 homes than some of our large city counterparts.” 

Stressing the importance of all county municipalities "sharing the same message" when making applications to the province, Lennox said he believes this is the key to ensuring smaller-scale county applications receive the same support as projects in larger municipalities. 

“I think we need to start telling the story in a different way ... so our colleagues in Queens Park recognize what it is we are contributing to this issue and make sure they have appropriate support for us," said Lennox. 

Looking to the future, Lennox said he's already started conversations with other County municipalities and will be working with them to share the message collectively. 

Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.