Is the
Midtown TOC
Greenbelt 2.0?
Take Action.

Illustration: Jarett Sitter / The Narwhal
From the moment the Town of Oakville received a letter from Infrastructure Ontario, the Midtown Transit Oriented Community Program (TOC) has been mired in secrecy, closed-door deals, favouritism to developers and lack of benefits to Oakville.
At the outset, Halton Region and the Town of Oakville had to sign Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure agreements with the government, which prevented them from sharing information and details on the TOC with residents and the general public. Only approved information could be shared.
The rules surrounding the TOC process raised eyebrows.
The Town of Oakville has no authority over the decision-making process surrounding the TOC. The Government of Ontario is in total control and makes all final decisions.
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the rudimentary public engagement process is under the control of the province.
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the province decides the boundaries of the Midtown TOC.
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the province undertook the selection of the third-party developer and all the negotiations and agreements.
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the province acts as the solitary commercial interface at the TOC site - in other words, the province doesn't share any financial information.
Who Benefits?
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the developer selected to be the province’s partner is the Midtown TOC is a developer that had already submitted development applications to the Town of Oakville and subsequently appealed them to the Ontario Land Tribunal. Those very same pieces of land have now become the TOC site.
And, there's this ...
Here's just one glaringly clear direct benefit the TOC developer receives.
In its initial applications to the Town of Oakville, the developer’s 11 proposed towers were shown on its architectural submissions as a total of 6,302 units. The TOC’s plan now shows the total units at 6,920. That’s an increase of over 600 units!
It isn't just oakville
Similar TOC projects outside the City of Toronto raised serious concerns with residents. "It has resurrected some of the same concerns that surrounded the Greenbelt Scandal".
In Markham, Richmond Hill and now, Oakville, a clear pattern has revealed itself. A blistering Toronto Star article in September 2024 exposed the Provincial Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program as yet another flawed process full of favours to developers, secret deals, gag orders on municipal Councils and heavy-handed tactics.
“… the province sealed the fate of the two TOCs by wielding another of its developer-friendly tools.”
“It has also resurrected some of the same concerns that surrounded the Greenbelt scandal, where decisions disproportionately favouring certain developers were sprung on local communities, leaving them questioning whose needs were being prioritized.”
“The government has made a series of moves to make it easier for the developers’ work to proceed, overriding opposition from local governments who said they don’t have the infrastructure to support the proposed 64 new condo towers”.
“The terms of those deals, however, are secret — and are even being withheld from the … municipal governments most affected by the decisions”
“With the TOC designation, the developers proposed to build about 18,000 additional condo units than they would’ve been able to before the province stepped in.”
More than a coincidence?
Compare for yourself!
In so many ways,
this process mirrors the tactics
used in the Greenbelt Scandal!
The Midtown TOC is Greenbelt 2.0
It's Time to Take Action
Text Doug Days!
From Now Until Election Day (Feb.27),
Text Doug Ford
@ 647-612-3673 and tell him:
Oakville Doesn’t Support the Midtown TOC
It’s #Greenbelt 2.0
You Have Lost My Vote.
