Growth Management and Regional Government
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Growth Management and Regional Government: How an Interpretive Approach Can Explain Politicians’ Commitment to Smart Growth Policies in Waterloo Region, Ontario Caitlin Michelle Daley A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Political Science York University Toronto, Ontario June 2017 © Caitlin Michelle Daley, 2017 ii Abstract This dissertation is a case study that explains how the Waterloo area’s regional government in Ontario, Canada, came to embrace smart growth policies, which aim to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas from urban sprawl while creating more dense urban communities. It develops an interpretive approach based on Mark Bevir and Rod Rhodes’s work on situated agency to explain why the 2010 to 2014 Region of Waterloo council defended the Region’s smart growth policies against two major challenges, choosing to build its intensification-focused light rail transit (LRT) project despite public controversy, and choosing to appeal an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) ruling that threatened its most recent official plan. Based on interviews, archival research, and document review, the dissertation is written in three parts that tell three kinds of stories, using Bevir and Rhodes’s concepts of tradition, dilemma, and webs of beliefs. Part I uses a historical narrative to explain the tradition of growth management and regional government in the Waterloo area. It finds that regional government and growth management have conditioned each other over the course of the last half century. Part II explains the dilemmas that the 2010 to 2014 regional council faced as a group in deciding to defend its smart growth policies. It finds that dilemmas related to light rail transit were resolved, and that meaningful dilemmas did not form as a result of the OMB ruling. Part III uses a series of narrative vignettes to examine the beliefs and actions of each regional councillor as an individual in the context of their own web of beliefs. It finds that politicians supported smart growth in their own ways and for their own reasons. The dissertation concludes with an assessment of what the three stories taken together show with respect to both specific aspects of planning policy and our understanding of practices of municipal government in Waterloo Region. Finally, it suggests that an ‘interpretive iii institutionalism’ in political science may be both possible and warranted, and that narrative approaches to the study of politics can produce accounts that are both academically rigorous and interesting to a broader audience. iv Dedication To Jeff, always… v Acknowledgements The approach I have used for this project assumes that we are all situated agents: we innovate against the backgrounds that are a first (and continuing) influence on us. This background, for me, has included enormous and intentional contributions from the people who supported me in this challenge, which has been one of the greatest of my life. Dennis Pilon graciously took me on as his PhD student. I came to him with a strange project relatively late in my doctoral studies, and he encouraged me to write the project I needed to write, while artfully steering me away from potential pitfalls. He advised me based on my own needs, and went out of his way to ensure my professional development as a scholar alongside the production of this dissertation. Dennis consistently models the kind of socially and politically engaged scholarship to which I aspire. I could not have asked for a better mentor and guide. My committee members, Pierre Filion (Waterloo) and Karen Murray, gave me their thoughtful attention and insights, and used their impressive ranges of expertise in all things urban to make sure I did not miss the big picture or important details in the various threads of this project. Caroline Andrew (Ottawa), Douglas Young, and David Mutimer joined with my committee to engage me in a productive and rewarding discussion at my dissertation defence. My first PhD supervisor at York, Elizabeth Dauphinee, always took my work seriously, and respected me enough to help me recognize that my first dissertation project was wrong for me. She helped me to come to terms with the scholar I am not, which allowed me to find the scholar that I am. My supervisors from past degrees, Eleanor MacDonald (Queen’s) and the late Richard Nutbrown (Waterloo), both supported me in research that pursued my emerging interests, and they provided crucial advice about my future in the academy, which led me here. vi The administrative staff members in the Department of Political Science have helped me survive and thrive at York, and made the department a consistently welcoming place. Marlene Quesenberry and Judy Matadial, in particular, helped me solve more problems than I can count. Financially, both the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and SSHRC Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship allowed me to continue working on this project until it was done. When I suddenly went from studying feminist political theory to studying municipal politics, I was taken in by the urban and local politics subfield of the Canadian Political Science Association. My transition was made so much easier by the generosity of countless scholars at various career stages who went out of their way to include me. Most tangibly, Zack Taylor helped me to hone my plans for future research in the politics of planning. Jack Lucas generously shared both his insights on the peculiarities of the Waterloo area and the seven boxes of local government documents he used for his dissertation. Zac Spicer provided consistent and strong mentorship in my new field, and hired me as his research assistant as I wrote the bulk of this document, thus ensuring that I had income and could learn more about municipalities while he repeatedly insisted that “the dissertation comes first.” This project has relied on the generous candor of my interviewees. Everyone I asked for an interview for this project said yes. Former and/or current regional council members Les Armstrong, Jane Brewer, Todd Cowan, Doug Craig, Rob Deutschmann, Tom Galloway, Jean Haalboom, Brenda Halloran, Ross Kelterborn, Geoff Lorentz, Jane Mitchell, Ken Seiling, Sean Strickland, Jim Wideman, and Carl Zehr told me about smart growth and about themselves, and I hope this work does justice to their years of public service. Former regional councillor Claudette Millar passed away before I could speak to her for this project, but her contributions to Cambridge, the Region of Waterloo, and this story fortunately speak loudly nonetheless. Kevin vii Curtis, Kevin Eby, Rob Horne, Mike Murray, Mark Reusser, and Kevin Thomason shared their expertise and insights on smart growth, and vastly improved my understanding of what has happened here. This project is significantly more robust and compelling as a result. The staff at the Region of Waterloo Archives, including Matt Roth, Lisa Lawlis, Lesley Webb, and particularly the great Charlotte Woodley, made me feel at home in their space, embraced my enthusiasm, and helped me access everything I needed quickly and conveniently. All those with whom I have worked on smart growth issues over the course of my life, from the Keep KCI campaign when I was in high school to the LRT debates to Smart Growth Waterloo Region, have contributed to my political education in their own ways. I am grateful they chose to use their situated agency to try to bring about the outcomes this project explains. My mother, Jane Gianfrancesco, has been my primary first influence. Over the last three decades, she has given me enormous insight into politics and policy from her career in municipal public service. But mostly, she taught me to how to be a decent and compassionate person, and was there for me while I took on this challenge and all challenges. Everyone should be so lucky. My husband, Jeff Henry, has been my partner for 11 years. On this project, he read my drafts, and shared my excitement as I pieced together all the little chunks of this big story. He reveled in my joy on the good days, and encouraged me on the bad days. In our time together, we have both learned to see the world through municipal eyes. I am reminded of our honeymoon in France five years ago, as we both stared at the public utility lines running along private buildings in a tightly built medieval village. “How would you even arrange that?” I said. “Maybe an easement?” he added thoughtfully. My municipal journey has been much more rewarding for the steadfast partner I had in it. Most importantly, Jeff always believed that I could do this, even when I didn’t believe it. I will always value his genuine pride in my accomplishment. viii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii List