August 21st, 2025 • Volume 6 • Issue 25
Mayor Wayne Redekop
I recently attended an open house at Town Hall that invited the public to consider how a parcel of land put into Fort Erie’s Area Urban Boundary by the Region’s Official Plan in 2022 should be or could be developed. The meeting was sparsely attended by members of the public. Still, those who attended had some interesting questions and observations with respect to the area in issue in general and our Town in particular.
As part of the Province’s long-range planning, population projections to 2051 have been made and the distribution of future residents allocated to each region and municipality in Ontario. In Fort Erie’s case, the 2051 population projection is just over 48,000 people. The projections have been significantly affected by the pandemic and the exodus from the Greater Toronto Area. With a current population of nearly 36,500 residents, Fort Erie has already exceeded our projected 2031 population. That has a variety of implications for our community.
Growth of a community can be transformational (new investment and jobs, greater retail variety, different perspectives), but also unsettling (strains on infrastructure, changes to neighbourhoods, more traffic). The municipal administration is responsible for addressing the challenges arising from growth. Hence, the Town of Fort Erie has a plethora of master plans, strategies and policies to manage growth, provide for the future of the community and protect and preserve to every extent possible what the residents who live here, whether from birth or as newcomers, value.
Perhaps the greatest anxiety that residents feel as development occurs is the loss of trees and wildlife habitat. The Town’s Official Plan designates areas for residential development, subject to restrictions related to environmental concerns, such as wetlands, significant wooded areas and species at risk habitat. For many years, the Town has required new development to include the planting of trees in new residential subdivisions and commercial and industrial facilities. Recently, Council has passed an enhanced Tree Preservation By-Law that requires property owners removing trees from within the Urban Area Boundary and in certain other areas to obtain a permit and to replace removed trees. If the property owner is a corporation, there is a multiplier applied to the number of trees to replace each tree removed. The Town has also conducted an annual tree give-away for many years providing trees at no costs to residents who attend the event and commit to plant and take care of the tree they receive. These efforts recognize that the emerald ash borer caused significant damage to our community and that restoring our tree canopy, the greatest of all municipalities in Niagara, is important from a variety of perspectives: aesthetic, climate, environmental and personal health.
The Council is also in the process of adopting a Climate Change Action Plan. The Plan has adaptation goals (including encouraging biodiversity, natural gardens, grassroots initiatives, storm water improvements, infrastructure resiliency) and mitigation goals (including tree planting, public transportation, waste reduction, green development standards, waste reduction, active transportation). The Plan is dependent on public engagement and participation. It is a forward-looking document that recognizes the value of our natural heritage and the importance of our role as stewards of Mother Earth/Turtle Island.
The nature and pace of growth have also caused concerns with respect to the adequacy of other infrastructure: roads, schools, health care, and wastewater. The Town, in collaboration with other public agencies, is working on ensuring that those aspects of the municipality are addressed and will meet the needs of our residents. While the Town administration has no ability to limit development applications presented by developers, we do have the ability to critically analyze those applications and process them in accordance with provincial rules and regulations. The objective is to approve proposals that align with Council’s vision for the growth of our community. As residents ourselves, we understand that the decisions that we make will impact the future of our community, including our families and our friends.
