'Implementing the Growth Plan: Examining Opportunities for Local Interpretation in a Globalizing Region'

This major paper examines the implementation of the Province of Ontario’s Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and utilizes the Region of Peel and its three area municipalities as a case study subject. Premised upon an interest in researching the intersection of governance, sustainability and growth management within a current regional planning context, this paper identifies a highly divergent implementation politics within Peel. Expressions of autonomy and interest in local determination over community planning and growth are unveiled and are shown to be enveloped by local development pressures and differing development emphases. Sustainability and governance form the theoretical foundation of this study and their interplay with growth management is explored as is the applicability of the emerging concept of Multi-Level Sustainability Governance to Ontario’s regional planning landscape. The Growth Plan holds tremendous potential for changing the urban form of the Greater Golden Horseshoe but relies upon successful and consistent implementation. Although the Province regards the Growth Plan as a tool for achieving community sustainability, a shared definition of sustainability remains to be formulated and as such, competing visions of sustainability challenge the foundations of the Plan. Furthermore, the Plan’s goal of consistent implementation is being challenged on three fronts: i) through unfolding scalar tensions; ii) as a result of varying governance objectives; and iii) due to unresolved provincial-regional and regional-municipal governance conflicts. Compliance can be achieved through enforcement measures held in-place by the Province but it is questionable if these will be executed considering the Province’s very recent re-entry into regional planning matters. However, with implementation continuing into 2009, municipal governments are just beginning to understand the implications of the Plan’s policies and new governance and sustainability challenges are bound to arise, thereby beckoning further research into contemporary regional planning in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.