By Pepper Parr
August 22, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Would someone explain to the Premier of the province that municipalities do not build houses.
They approve developments and issue building permits when all the required conditions are met.
Some developers don’t like that process and take their case to the Ontario Land Tribunal holds things up for a couple of years and often, most of the time give the developer at least a part of what they want.
Of the five categories only those waiting for site plan approval have an outcome determined by the city.
Ford, under a lot of pressure is as a result of the Greenbelt land swaps announced a $1.2-billion fund to encourage municipalities to build more housing.
Hopefully he will give them rubber stamps so they can put approval on development applications.
The announcement was made to delegates at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in London on Monday.
The surprise move, was a new three-year, $1.2-billion “building faster fund” that would reward cities and towns that try to meet the housing construction targets the province has imposed upon them.
This is a really dismal bit of information.
“This new fund is an incentive program that supports municipalities to build more homes,” the premier said, citing Pickering, Vaughan and Brantford as examples that would receive increased cash for “infrastructure and community-building projects” because they are exceeding their mandates.
“Municipalities that reach 80 per cent of their target each year will become eligible for funding based on their share of the overall goal of 1.5 million homes,” he said, warning those failing to meet the 80 per cent threshold won’t qualify.
The Progressive Conservatives want to build those homes 2031, with Ford conceding it is an “ambitious” aim because this year there will be about 110,000 housing starts; well below the average of more than 150,000 that need to be constructed each year.
“It’d be the first time in over three decades that we surpassed the 100,000 threshold. From there, we’ll ramp up over time until we’re on track to build at least 1.5 million homes”, said Ford
Do you see anything positive about these numbers?
Municipal leaders welcomed the new funding, which comes as they are coping with reduced revenues from development charges that the province removed to spur construction of more affordable housing.
We have yet to hear a single municipal leader explain how the money is going to move the development applications any faster.
