AGAR: If not in my backyard, then where in Ontario?

Development hurdles in Port Dover and Muskoka, Ont. shed light on latest NIMBY stances that perhaps go too far

Published Jul 06, 2026  •  3 minute read

Port Dover, Ont. Photo by ADOBE /STOCK

I have a question.

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Where do we expect people to live?

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As a follow-up to last week’s column about people using government to stop development, the fight is on in Port Dover and Muskoka, Ont.

These are people who I am sure will admit that we need housing, but will not accept that those new houses might have to be near them.

The proposal in Port Dover would create a new community with 7,000 to 11,000 new jobs and 10,000 new homes with schools, community services and parks.

Opponents voice concern about congestion, noise and dirt, while the Toronto Star quotes one woman saying, “I’m not opposed to development. It’s just the wrong place.”

And there it is.

NIMBY.

Not in my back yard.

We can’t build in the Greenbelt.

People were fighting taking out a dive bar for a condo development.

Community groups like the Beaches Residents Association of Toronto work overtime to insure that much-needed housing goes somewhere else.

The CBC did a report on this phenomenon a couple of years ago.

“Residents passionate about their communities want to have a say in what gets built and where,” said Geoff Kettel, the president of the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, an Ontario-wide coalition of resident associations, per CBC.

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But voicing concerns, “often through public consultations, comes with the risk of being labelled a NIMBY, which Kettel called “pejorative.”

“We’re regular citizens,” Kettel said. “Everybody has the right to express themselves and to be part of the community.”

When your argument devolves to “I have a right to my opinion,” you have run out of reasonable argument.You simply want your way.

The city of Toronto has what is called a yellow belt.

Huge swaths of Toronto’s residential areas were historically zoned strictly for single-detached or semi-detached homes.

That changed in 2023 after city council voted to allow the development of two, three and four-unit multiplexes throughout the city. Maybe that will help.

Many places that have traditionally been made up of single homes and small commercial buildings are now seeing large condo developments.

That is just a reality we have to accept.

“Kevin Lee, the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, said Nimbyism discourages developers from trying to build. In many cases, local opposition to housing developments can delay and sometimes completely derail projects,” the CBC wrote.

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“You’re going to have so much opposition that it’s just … not worth the effort,” Lee said.

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Ontario’s population in 2016 was 13,500,000.

Today it is just over 16 million.

A similar fight to the one in Port Dover is going on in Muskoka.

There is a proposal to develop a parcel of land that sits behind a series of waterfront cottages on Ontario’s Lake Rosseau where entertainer Martin Short has a summer home.

I like Martin Short, but he is making the same argument NIMBYs always make.

He says, “I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have a right to paradise, I agree with that, but you have to also respect paradise.”

It’s reminiscent of the old saying that an environmentalist is a person who has a house in the woods and doesn’t want you to have one.

The needs of a community — a province — change.

Those who fight change the hardest may not just be “concerned.” They might be selfish.

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