Remember MZOs. Early on in the Ford government, Ministerial Zoning Orders were the hot thing to cut through red tape and get construction started faster by overriding public planning procedures, like the one being sought now for a one million square foot facility on zoned agricultural land in Puslinch. As upper levels of government accelerate pro-business policies and override environmental concerns and assessments, can one group of activists still win?

It’s been a while since we’ve had to deal with the overuse, and maybe the misuse, of the Ministerial Zoning Order. The Ford government issued a record 120 MZOs between 2018 and 2024, which prompted the auditor general to say in December of that year that the process needs an overhaul, not the least of which because only 12 per cent of those projects made it to completion. Some, like the glass plant in Stratford, never even got started.

That’s why the MZO being sought by Danby and Upper Canada Forest Group for a new headquarters in Puslinch is so fraught. Local residents are concerned about putting something this big on sensitive agricultural land and right next door to the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada, plus there are issues around road access and the more appropriate employment lands zoned nearby. One group has managed to stop the project this far, but are they ready for this fight to go all the way to Queen’s Park?

Justin Wilson of Help Protect Puslinch will join us on this edition of the podcast to talk about the group’s objections to the project, the practical planning reasons why the town council has repeatedly rejected the project, and balancing growth and small town charm in Puslinch. He will also talk about the room for compromise on this issue, whether they’ve had a chance to talk to Danby CEO Jim Estill directly, and the lessons learned from other MZO fights. Also, are Wilson and his associates NIMBYs?

So let’s talk about the latest MZO fight in our own backyard on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can learn about the group Help Protect Puslinch at their website, and you can follow them on social media on Facebook and on Instagram. If you’re listening to this on Wednesday and you want to get involved, that public meeting we talked about is tonight at the Puslinch Community Centre at 7 pm. To learn more about the Small Change Fund, you can go to their website.

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Photo courtesy of Facebook/Help Protect Puslinch.