Our Concerns

In December 2024, we took action to ensure the Town of Caledon does not become a template for developer-led land use planning in the Province of Ontario.  

 

We are committed to pressuring the Town to reverse these 12 re-zonings and start from scratch. This means conducting necessary financial and servicing studies, performing the essential environmental assessments, and engaging in meaningful consultations with the public and First Nations. ​

 

Democracy Caledon supports the planning and creation of complete urban communities where people can live, work and play without major daily travel.  

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We do not oppose new urban development. Rather, our concern is with unaffordable, planned-for-profit development and without real community input on what's important to them and without the community amenities that people need. 

In September 2025, Caledon’s Commissioner of Engineering released a draft site-alteration by-law to replace our existing fill by-law. She said we needed a new “modern” by-law to give "staff the necessary tools to manage the dumping of fill" and to reflect current provincial regulations.  

 

In addition to improving controls on fill dumping, the proposed by-law would allow permits for greater than 10,000 cubic metres of fill anywhere in Caledon (just like Swan Lake). This would open Caledon up to large-scale commercial (for profit) fill dumps. It would also allow fill to be dumped such that it could come into contact with both groundwater (risking people’s wells) and surface waters (streams and rivers). In January 2026, Council approved a motion to extend the public consultation, including a second open house that was held in May.

 

Public opposition to the draft by-law remains high. In May 2026, the Commissioner of Engineering confirmed that the proposed by-law would not come before this term of Council. We live to fight another day.

‘Swan Lake’ (so named by the community) is a 90-acre rural property in northwest Caledon. It has a 44-acre lake, fed by groundwater, and is a fully rehabilitated former gravel pit.

 

In May 2025, a Caledon Council majority twice approved a motion by Mayor Groves allowing the developer/landowner to bypass Caledon’s fill by-law restrictions, and subject to providing a number of “how-to plans” such as how to dewater the lake, how to deal with erosion etc., the landowner would be permitted to dump fill into Swan Lake. The community descended on Council to support residents, farmers and other businesses near the property. They demanded that the Town protect this habitat for the trumpeter swans, turtles and other wildlife species living there, save the area’s groundwater from contamination by urban construction fill, and prevent a steady flow of dump trucks to and from the property for many years.

 

The high-profile community campaign ended in December 2025, when Council voted to revisit the Mayor’s original motion. This time, about to head into an election year, Mayor Groves and Councillors Russo, Rosa, Napoli and Maskell switched sides and it was unanimously defeated – Swan Lake was saved… for a while. But given the toll on local residents and the community as a whole, and the threat of a site-alteration by-law to replace the fill by-law, it was a hollow victory.

 

When asked if the new site alteration by-law would allow the landowner to obtain a fill permit to dump hundreds of thousands of truckloads of urban construction fill into Swan Lake, Caledon’s Commissioner of Engineering said "yes, subject to Council's approval."

In 2023, Premier Doug Ford granted “strong mayor powers” to many Ontario mayors, including Caledon’s, to advance the provincial priority of housing and related infrastructure.  These powers allow mayors to:

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• Draft and put forward the annual municipal budget on her/his own, not via council committee

• Appoint and dismiss senior municipal staff such as the Chief Administrative Officer and department heads

• Veto by-laws or council decisions that conflict with provincial priorities

• Pass by-laws to advance provincial priorities with only 1/3 council support
   

Many mayors (such as in Orangeville, Newmarket, Ottawa, Toronto) have chosen NOT to use Strong Mayor Powers.  By contrast, Caledon Mayor Annette Groves used Strong Mayor Powers often – a total of 21 times – in some cases unrelated to provincial priorities, even to appoint golf tournament committee members.

Read more about concerns with Strong Mayor powers here.

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Democracy Caledon strongly opposes the use of Strong Mayor Powers for a simple reason – they are undemocratic. They undermine ‘majority rules’ in our local democracy and give too much power to the mayor.