Toronto Star

Don't look now, but the landscape of Ontario has changed. Recent amendments and additions to the legislative framework of the province mean that the rules governing planning have been rewritten. On paper at least, the bad old days of endless sprawl are over, replaced by a new regime that values higher density and higher quality development. It will take time before the results of the changes are visible, but they will happen. "It's a 25-year plan," says David Caplan, Ontario's minister of public infrastructure renewal. "What we have put in place is a blueprint for how we're going to grow over the next few decades. The first thing we've done is say where you don't want growth to happen – that's absolutely critical – then we've said where we do want it to grow." Caplan is referring to the province's plans for the greenbelt and for growth, which seek to protect environmentally sensitive areas such as the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Niagara Escarpment and the Rouge Valley, and concentrate development in designated "nodes" such as Barrie, Mississauga, Markham, Kitchener/Waterloo and, of course, Toronto.