TV Ontario tells the Burlington housing story and how the Housing Minister stiffs the city

By Gazette Staff

February 25th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Burlington mayor Marianne Meed Ward was, until recently, skeptical of claims made by everyone from the provincial government to the development industry that cutting development charges on new homes would spur much in the way of affordable new construction. My colleague Steve Paikin reported last October that Meed Ward argued cutting development charges — the levies Ontario municipalities charge on new homes that help fund infrastructure — wouldn’t, on its own, do much to help solve the housing crisis.

High rise towers like this that have been approved and have building permits are not being built. The market just isn’t there.

The facts have changed, and Meed Ward has changed her mind.

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“According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Data, Burlington might be lucky to get 300 homes built this year, maybe if we’re really lucky as high as 500. Our target under the Building Faster Fund is 2,900,” Meed Ward says. “Development charges alone are not going to do it all, that’s a position I’ve always held and continue to hold… but there is something we can do.”

To that end, Meed Ward and her colleagues on Burlington city council are looking to eliminate development charges altogether for a period of two years, following on a previous decision to lower fees. Other municipalities like Mississauga and Vaughan have also voted to lower fees, but Burlington’s motion would be among the farthest-reaching, even if it’s time-limited.

Simply having the debate has already been a bit rocky: the idea was approved at a committee meeting earlier this month, was initially put before council on February 17, but deferred to a special meeting of council scheduled for March 2. That meeting may, in turn, be deferred for a month while city staff do a more thorough analysis of the potential fiscal impact of a development charge moratorium.

Councillor Rory Nisan

Councillor Rory Nisan says he’s not opposed to reducing development charges, but wants assurances that Burlington residents aren’t going to take a hit in the wallet for the change in policy.

“I want us to be made whole,” Nisan says. “I want to know if there’s some fund that we apply to. We get the money, then perfect. We’ll go dollar-for-dollar, we’ll reduce our [development charges] for every dollar of funding we get towards them. But there’s no funding coming at this point.”

Nisan worries that the development charge moratorium will be funded by raiding the city’s reserve funds, which are earmarked for community projects — in effect, he worries the stimulus for the local housing sector might come at the expense of a local park, community centre, or firehouse. Another possibility would be increasing the city’s debt, which would eventually need to be repaid by taxpayers.

Housing Minister Rob Flack stopped short of an unambiguous promise to keep municipalities whole for any reductions.

Both Premier Doug Ford and his housing minister, Rob Flack, have urged municipalities to reduce development charges to help spur more home building, but have stopped short of an unambiguous promise to keep municipalities whole for any reductions. Flack’s office declined an interview with TVO Today, but provided an emailed statement from spokesperson Michael Minzak.

“We applaud Burlington for taking steps to pause development charges, following in the footsteps of Vaughan, Mississauga, and Peel,” Minzak’s statement says. “We know development charges can be an obstacle to getting shovels in the ground for new homes, and Burlington’s move builds on the action our government has taken to reduce development charges across Ontario.”

The province is looking at other measures to lower the government-imposed costs of new housing, including broadening the HST cut for new homes and moving the costs of water and sewer service onto dedicated municipal service corporations instead of the property tax bill. Those measures aren’t mutually exclusive — an HST rebate on the sale of new homes could work with a development charge cut to lower the cost of housing further.

The home building industry is, predictably, enthusiastic about the possible move in Burlington, even as they warn that, given the current bleak economics of home sales in Ontario, even the elimination of development charges will not unleash a housing utopia in the western GTA.

Mike Collins-Williams, head of the West End Home Builders Association said: “Every little bit helps, and our view is that all three levels of government need to be part of the solution.”

“On its own, it’s not going to be enough to drastically change the economic environment,” said Mike Collins-Williams, head of the West End Home Builders Association, even as he praised Meed Ward and Burlington council for showing leadership on the issue. “Every little bit helps, and our view is that all three levels of government need to be part of the solution.”

“I hope this is a moment in time where municipalities sober up; the party’s over, so to speak, when it comes to development charges,” Collins-Williams added. “We all know infrastructure needs to be paid for and development charges can be an important tool, but they’ve been a runaway train for the last decade and a half.”

The decision council makes will hinge on the possible fiscal harms to Burlington, but both Collins-Williams and Meed Ward emphasize that the city can’t collect development charges if homes aren’t built — “nothing from nothing is still nothing,” as Premier Ford put it last year. Collins-Williams also noted that Burlington voters don’t need to believe in the generosity of developers to think that any new homes built because of the cut to development charges will be at a lower price.

“The froth has all gone out of the market,” Collins-Williams said. “I’ll be completely honest, if the market was booming the market price would be what dictates whether a cut to DCs flows through to homebuyers or not.”

“In the current environment, any reduction in taxes or fees will 100 per cent flow through to consumers because, for builders, that’s the only way they’ll be able to move product.”

Meed Ward: “Let’s focus on policy, not personal attacks, but let’s also make sure that we respect people enough to give them good and accurate information.”

Meed Ward is, like all Ontario municipal politicians, up for re-election in October if she chooses to run again. She could, in theory, invoke her strong-mayor powers to pass this measure even in the face of council opposition. She says she won’t do that. (She did use her mayoral powers to direct staff to conduct a financial analysis of the measure.) She says that she isn’t concerned about the measure blowing back in her face come election season.

“My biggest concern is that there will be mischaracterization and misinformation in the community about this. Development charges aren’t well understood,” Meed Ward says. “Let’s focus on policy, not personal attacks, but let’s also make sure that we respect people enough to give them good and accurate information.”