Below is a letter submitted to the Editor of Now Magazine regarding the article "In Pickering, another (bigger) airport battle is reprised" in which Marcy Burchfield, Executive Director of the Neptis Foundation clarifies the context of her statements and requests a correction.
Dear Editor (NOW Magazine),
I am writing to request a correction to comments attributed to me in an article in today's NOW Magazine about the Pickering Airport battle.
The original article stated:
Marcy Burchfield, the Neptis Foundation's executive director, suspects that the Seaton mega-development will struggle to fill the houses and commercial property it intends to build.
"Durham region has historically overestimated its need for development to the point where the province stepped in to stop the oversupply of urban land in the area."
The two paragraphs are a misrepresentation of what I said.
First, I was referring to jobs, not homes when I mentioned the challenge of building a mixed-used, transit supportive community on the Seaton lands, which was in the context of a newspaper article the reporter had asked me about (http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/01/11/pickerings_huge_seaton_development_clears_final_hurdle.html).
Second, the article incorrectly juxtaposes and links my comments about Seaton to a separate discussion I had with the reporter about the historical trend of population and employment growth in the GTA going west and not east. I described to her that as part of Durham Region's exercise to have their official plan conform to the Province's Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Province exercised a "provincial interest" and challenged the region's estimate of land needed for urbanization. These comments cannot be linked to the Seaton situation which is a plan that has been in the works for many, many years.
I would like to have these two points corrected and/or have this letter published on the letters page.
Yours sincerely,
Marcy Burchfield