King Township Council Meeting - December 8, 2025
- JA
- Dec 15, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
Great news! Council endorsed the much anticipated Transportation Master Plan that does NOT include making the 15th a truck bypass. The Plan does, however, recommend completing an Environmental Assessment to examine the potential extension of 15th Sideroad from Keele Street to Jane Street.
Quick Links
Mayor's Comments
Register for the Winter Recreations Programs – including swimming. Programs start January 12th – more here.
The transition from municipal to provincial recycling program starts December 31st. If you don’t like the 260 litre cart, you can request a somewhat smaller 240 litre cart. You can only do this exchange once and you are only permitted one so if you make this transition. You can also apply for a second big bin. customerservice@circularmaterials.ca; 1-877-667-2626 or visit the website for more CircularMaterials.ca
You can drop off donations of non-perishable food or unwrapped new toy for Christmas in King at the King City Fire Station Monday-Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm or call your local fire station to drop off there.
A Christmas Carol presented by the King Theatre Company is on December 13th - 21st, 2025. Tuesday - Saturday evening performances at 7:00pm, Saturday & Sunday matinee performances at 2:00pm. Runtime approximately 70 minutes. Order tickets here.
Recreational skating and hockey and different sports over the holiday at King Recreation Centers.
The Lion’s Club will host the Mayor’s Annual Pancake Breakfast on Saturday January 10th at the Nobleton Community Centre from 8-11am.
Development Charges Background Study
The DC study was first presented to Council in November (read more here) but as a result of recent provincial changes (in the last month) more work needs to be done. Here's a small sample of some of the changes that have been made just this year:
Bill 17, Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act:
DC exemptions for long-term care homes
Grouping of services for DC credits. In the past, credits earned for a specific type of infrastructure (e.g., roads) could generally only be applied against the DCs in that same service category. Now service categories can be grouped (ex: roads and transit) to allow developers to use a road credits to help pay for transit DCs.
“Local Services” for which municipalities are not entitled to charge DCs are to be defined to reduce disputes with developers.
Developers are only required to pay residential DCs on occupancy. This is particularly impactful since municipalities are required to build the new infrastructure well in advance of project completion. This effectively means that tax payers are funding all of those costs until occupancy which can take several years.
Removal of interest on instalment payments
Option for residential and institutional developments to pay DCs earlier
Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act: Note that this bill was introduced on October 23rd and received Royal Assent on November 27, 2025 and now has to be factored into the DC Study.
New class of service for land acquisition. King will need to look at the DC bylaw and remove calculations for fire, services related to highway, recreation, and library to be placed in their own service category.
Every service has to have a local service policy that identifies what the town will be included in DCs for collection vs what will be required by developers to build in their subdivision.
Merged credits for water and wastewater services
More detailed capital cost and allocation requirements in background studies
The updated DC bylaw will be presented to council in 2026.
Transportation Master Plan
Great news! Council endorsed the recommendations for the new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) which DID NOT include making the 15th a truck bypass. A massive THANK YOU to all who worked so hard to raise awareness about the issue and let the town know it was not acceptable. King is blessed to have so many engaged and passionate residents.
The creation of the TMP is meant to accommodate growth in population and employment growth to 2051 that are passed down from the province and region. The TMP process identifies problems and solution and arrives at a preferred transportation network. Staff have issued a Notice of Study Complete to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks which starts a 30-day review period ending January 8th - an additional presentation to Council will be if any substantial changes are made. Following this, the Environmental Assessment will be done along with further detailed assessment and design before projects are approved to be implemented. There will be further opportunity for public input as the remaining work is completed.
While the TMP includes recommendations for phasing and costs, these are only preliminary numbers and timelines.
Regarding the proposal to extend the 15th from Keele to Jane, WSP’s Senior Transportation Planner, Lachlan Fraser, had this to say:
“Many residents still expressed concerns over the recommended 15th sideroad improvements. However, these concerns can not be accurately assessed in the scope of a Transportation Master Plan and our project team supports a more detailed investigation of the corridor to determine the potential impacts. This TMP gives township staff instructions to undertake an Environmental Assessment of the corridor which is required to also include additional public consultation with the general public as well as consultation with adjacent property owners.”
The town plans on doing an Environmental Impact study of the 15th in the next five years. This will be an ecological study only to understand flora and fauna though King may choose to add extra studies on water or other areas of interest. The Environmental Impact study, however, expires after 5 years and would need to be redone closer to any road work. The rest of the Environmental Assessment including groundwater recharge, air quality, noise, vibration, etc. is not scheduled until 2045 to have the road ready for 2051.
One very interesting element of the TMP included a review of funding options to pay for an improved road network. Currently, gravel road conversions are paid 90% by DCs with only 10% coming from taxpayers. Since building has slowed down, however, so has the accumulation of a DC reserve. As a result, King has approved just $700,000 in the 2026 budget for gravel road conversion. The estimated cost to pave all gravel roads is $46 million and according to and according to King’s new Asset Management plan this is required to be done in the next 15 years. This means that King needs to be investing over $3 million per year to meet its obligation. King’s CFO recently left to become the CFO for Peele Region so I look forward to hearing from the next CFO how this will be tackled.
Internet Voting
Council approved the use of Internet Voting in addition to the use of paper ballots with optical scan tabulators, and alternative voting methods for accessibility purposes including a vote at home program for municipal and school board elections held in the Township of King.
A 2025 survey showed strong support for future internet voting, with 81% of respondents favoring the option for the 2026 elections. The hope is that this new option will increase voter turnout which continues to trend downwards overall from 38.3 per cent in 2018 to 32.9 per cent in 2022.
King will partner with Vaughan and neighboring municipalities for cost savings. The cost of implementing internet voting for the 2026 election is based on the current number of eligible voters in King, which is 21,954. The estimated cost for internet voting is approximately $30,000, including HST. Funding for the 2026 election comes from the Township’s Election Reserve, which is projected to total $230,000 in 2026. This amount is sufficient to cover the election using the traditional process of paper ballots with tabulators.
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