FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2023
QUEEN’S PARK— Will the Ontario government protect the good paying jobs at Nanticoke? That was the question Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady asked in the Ontario Legislature this morning.
Brady pointed to the government’s creation of Provincially Significant Employment Zones in 2019, which she said was a good idea. However, the Ford government is currently sidestepping the PSEZs under Bill 97.
Further, there is a request on the table to issue an MZO (Minister’s Zoning Order) for the lands surrounding the park for a proposed 15,000 home development. This is a proposal that the former Haldimand mayor supported and approached the government to issue an MZO.
Stelco and Imperial Oil have both said a provincial re-zoning of the lands for residential use could imperil the future of both company’s Lake Erie works.
“Haldimand County needs these good paying jobs and an industrial park is where they should remain,” said Brady. “Speaker, will the minister assure Haldimand County and the tenants of the industrial park that this government will protect the jobs at the steel mill and the refinery as they said they would do in 2019?”
In 2019, the Ontario government created PSEZs (including the Nanticoke Industrial Park,) by identifying areas of high economic output. Identifying these areas was to provide stable reliable employment across the Greater Golden Horseshoe area.
“It appears something interesting developed between 2019 and last spring,” said Brady. “Because now we see this government doing away with the growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Surely, we are not so desperate to build houses that we would subject newcomers to life in Ontario’s largest industrial park?”
In conclusion, Brady asked if the consultation on the forthcoming Provincial Planning Statement concludes that the people of Ontario want to see these employment lands protected, and if the government will uphold that protection including the employment lands at Nanticoke.
Associate Minister of Housing, Nina Tangri, fielded the questions and twice responded with the government’s pat answer of building housing and protecting high-employment zones but nothing directly related to protecting jobs at the Nanticoke Industrial Park.
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For more information, contact MPP Bobbi Ann Brady at [email protected] or 519-428-0446