Oakville Mayoral Candidates Answer Midtown Questions in Writing

Anyone trying to work out where Oakville's next mayor stands on midtown now has the answers in writing. We Love Oakville put a set of questions to the candidates in the mayor's race and published the replies grouped question by question, so positions sit side by side instead of scattered across campaign pages.

The group asked what each candidate learned from the transit oriented community process, what they personally did while it was underway, and whether they support asking the Province to revoke the four ministerial zoning orders behind the current plan, approve the Town's own midtown plan known as OPA 70, and work with Oakville on what gets built there. Answers were posted as received, with only formatting and salutations standardized, so the wording belongs to the candidates.

Where the answers landed

Three further questions got more specific. Would a revised plan capped at 38 storeys be acceptable if the number of units stayed the same? Would the candidate put Town owned land into the project to hold that unit count at a lower height? And when the Province oversteps, should Oakville push back publicly or work within whatever process the Province sets?

On those three the replies run close together. Nobody answering the 38 storey question said yes, with several making the same point that shorter towers holding the same number of homes put the same load on roads, schools and servicing. Nobody agreed to commit Town land for the purpose of preserving the unit count, and each said Oakville should push back on provincial decisions rather than work inside the process without objection.

Voters go to the polls on October 26. The complete set of replies, exactly as each candidate wrote them, is posted as a single document for anyone who wants the full text rather than the summary.