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Orangeville council enjoyed much success in 2025

January 3, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Orangeville’s council hit its stride over the last year.

And Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor said that’s indicated by the commencement of long-awaited work on Hansen Boulevard as part of a housing development that has been in the hopper for more than 20 years.

College Avenue-Hansen Boulevard residents have spent months watching to see when mounds of sand and dirt would make way for a piece of road that would mark the continuation of a housing development project. Continuation of the residential development, dubbed Five Creek Estates, will connect Hansen with College Avenue and Mason Street.

It will be an east-west corridor across the town’s north end. More than a kilometre of new thoroughfare will be built, including infrastructure required for water, sewer, gas, hydro, and communications services.

“It feels like we’re doing a lot of the right things as we go forward,” he said.

Taylor said council was furious about how long it took the developer to begin work on the road after the town installed the necessary bridge to allow it to move forward. He’d gone for the jugular in meetings with the developer’s representatives, just as many councillors had. Indeed, there were open council meetings in which Taylor expressed his displeasure with the company’s perceived foot-dragging.

But then he came to a realization.

“The reality for them is they need to be hugged,” Taylor said. “They’re investing millions upon millions upon millions of dollars in there.”

That’s money they could have invested in another community.

“In the end, it sort of became this mutual respect,” he said. “We certainly had a divergence of opinion for a period of time.”

Orangeville Mayor Lisa Post, who was recently elected Dufferin County warden, agreed that much had been accomplished over the last year. She said municipal staff have been “laser-focused” on the fundamental chores that enable a town to thrive. Much was done in the way of investing in critical infrastructure.

“The last year in Orangeville has been about steady, meaningful progress,” Post said. “I am sure the community felt frustrated with a lot of the road construction this summer. But, for me, I was thrilled to see so much work happening.”

Much of that long-overdue work is finally being completed, she said. And the town has gone the distance in other ways behind the scenes, where taxpayers won’t immediately notice.

“Particularly with the creation of some long-term financial planning policies that formalize how we invest in reserves, use debt, and ensure that we are set up for the long run,” Post said.

“I am incredibly proud of how collaborative our council has been since the beginning of this term, even as provincial legislation has changed significantly and thrown us lots of curveballs, to stay focused on what matters most.”

Taylor said councillors have not always seen eye to eye on some issues. Each councillor has their own different strengths, and everybody has their own views on issues.

“But what I like about that group is everybody is wickedly respectful,” he said.

That wasn’t the case for some past town councils in previous terms. The drama among some former councillors was akin to “must-see TV,” he said.

“I remember watching some of those (meetings), and they were doing budgets in May,” Taylor said. “Our budget is done. It’s over.”

That’s accomplished by the current council’s focus on finding consensus. And he hopes that the unity that’s sometimes strengthened by initial opposing points of view continues.

“I hope that folks on council are considering what they’re going to do in the future,” Taylor said. “And hopefully a lot of them consider re-running because I think it’s been a very effective council.”

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