Case Study: Ontario Growth Secretariat

CLIENT:

An agency of the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the Ontario Growth Secretariat (OGS) created the government’s Places to Grow initiative, a province-wide effort to manage Ontario’s population growth, support economic prosperity and achieve a high quality of life for all Ontarians.

CHALLENGE:

The OGS’s multi-disciplinary team works with communities across the province to help develop and implement regional growth plans. As part of its Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario, the OGS needed expertise to help define the Built Boundary, which creates areas with development targets established for smart and sustainable growth. The ambitious plan set out specific population and employment goals, with higher densities allowed in downtown cores and new greenfield development densities set at 20 jobs and people per acre. For the Growth Plan of Northern Ontario, the OGS wanted to better understand the area’s labour market and population dynamics—growth, in-migration, outmigration and age structure—in order to develop policies to support growing communities.

SOLUTION:

For the Greater Golden Horseshoe growth plan, EA took parcel-level data from the provincial government and, with input from the OGS and municipalities, devised a methodology to create the Built Boundary. By producing a series of maps that plotted the line areas, EA provided municipal governments with the guidance needed to create growth plans that channeled development into different urban and greenfield areas. For the Growth Plan of Northern Ontario, EA integrated several distinct datasets—including the Canadian Census, Demographic Estimates and Projections and Business Profiles—in order to construct a detailed portrait of area residents five years ago, today and as much as a decade into the future. EA submitted the findings in a series of research reports and presentations that the OGS used to support its blueprint for the region’s evolving economic future and the framework for decision-making regarding policy and investment planning.

RESULTS:

The EA research provided valuable information in support of OGS’s Growth Plan by describing the changing social and economic characteristics of the populations in the Golden Horseshoe and Northern Ontario. The analysis examined reasons for changes in population and labour markets, and reported the results at different levels of census geography. The results have aided the Secretariat’s work with multiple ministries and municipalities to ensure that the government's policies and funding support is consistent with the goals of Places to Grow.