The Province of Ontario’s Bill 23 could mean a nearly $40 million hole in the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury’s budget.
CAO Geoff McKnight outlined the potential impacts to the town with the passing of the bill at the first official meeting of council for the 2022-2026 term on Dec. 6. When combined with County of Simcoe impacts (specifically regarding development charges collected by the county for affordable housing in the community), the town is short $38.7 million over the next decade.
Shifting that amount to ratepayers – equivalent to an approximately 16 per cent municipal tax increase - is “untenable,” a staff report from McKnight stated.
If it comes to that, Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu wants residents to know exactly who is taking the money out of their pockets.
“If we don’t get the funding or the revenue covered, we should call it out in our budget, by line,” Sandhu said. “Whether it’s the provincial government tax or the Bill 23 tax, whatever we call it, the residents of this municipality or other municipalities know that it’s not their councils that are hitting them with this tax.”
Since drafting his report, McKnight indicated Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark has promised to “make whole” municipalities that indeed are put in a deficit position because of the bill’s changes, and will be able to build housing infrastructure, but questions remain. While local governments won’t know if that would mean changes coming to Bill 23 or grants being provided from the province, Clark was clear it was expected municipalities must apply for the existing federal housing accelerator fund.
“That’s all fine and dandy, other than that is an application process that has no guarantee that all municipalities will be successful,” he said. “If that’s the lone answer to concerns municipalities have expressed with respect to being made whole – such that we don’t rely on municipal taxpayers to pay for growth-related infrastructure – then that remains an issue.”
While appreciative of the promise to make whole, both Mayor James Leduc and Coun. Ben Verkaik noted any government grants would not actually come from the development community, but rather from the provincial coffers. That cost would ultimately be borne by the taxpayers, a point punctuated by the mayor who stressed “there is only one taxpayer.”
“We need more understanding of what they’re addressing and how they’re going to deal with it,” Leduc said.
The province introduced Bill 23 on Oct. 25, the day after municipal elections in Ontario. With a goal to build 1.5 million new homes in Ontario, the provincial government introduced sweeping changes with the bill to ensure the development community would be unencumbered in reaching that milestone.
Yet the development community is only one part of the equation in building new homes. If Bill 23 is successful in reaching the province’s goal, “it would do so while also negatively impacting the stakeholder shouldered with the bulk of responsibility for achieving the housing target – municipal governments,” McKnight said in his report.
The report outlined ways in which the Development Charges Act will change under the legislation, alongside excluding social housing as no longer being eligible as a development charge service, a change that could mean an additional $21 million in taxation alone over the next 10-to-15 years. Also in the bill is a requirement for municipalities to spend or allocate 60 per cent of the development charges collected for water, wastewater and roads.
There is uncertainty as to what “allocate” means in this sense, and how it will impact the town remains unclear. McKnight’s report questions whether the benchmark is reasonable to obtain.
“Spending 60 per cent of funds collected on an annual basis is impractical as the amount will likely be insufficient to construct planned infrastructure in any given year,” the report stated.
Changes to the Planning Acts regulations for parkland dedication introduced through Bill 23 will likely be “consequential” given that alternate parkland dedication requirements are to be reduced by 50 per cent and that developers will determine which lands will be conveyed for parkland purposes as opposed to the municipality.
Councillors overall were sceptical about Bill 23 and generally agreed it wasn’t great for the municipality. However, despite its flaws, council was able to find some redeeming parts to it worth salvaging, albeit with significantly more consultation than the province has previously provided.
Coun. Jonathan Scott highlighted the commitments made to reducing phosphorus levels in Lake Simcoe solidified in Bill 23. The bill officially puts an end to the northern York Region sewage treatment plant and calls on York and Durham regions to come to an agreement regarding wastewater infrastructure expansion. The bill also solidifies the phosphorus treatment plan Bradford West Gwillimbury has been calling for to protect the health of Lake Simcoe.
“The province is pretty well doing exactly what we were requesting,” Scott said, regarding the phosphorus plant. Phosphorus reduction ties in well with the stated desire of Bill 23, the councillor added.
“We know we have growth to manage, and we want to do it in a sensible, smart-growth way,” he added, calling on the government to consult with environmental groups better and for environmental groups to be more willing to find the common ground between sides on matters of growth.
But to accomplish that, greater clarity is required from the province, particularly regarding development charges and funding growth-related infrastructure, and not merely blind hope that the savings created by streamlining processes or cutting costs for developers will trickle down to home buyers and create more affordable ownership options.
“I doubt the homeowner will see the break the developer is going to get out of this bill,” Sandhu said.
Indeed, the town needs more money from developers, not less and the motion passed by council at the Dec. 6 meeting highlights its concerns with Bill 23, specifying “the potential negative impacts that Bill 23 will have on the town’s physical development, financial viability and natural resource management efforts.” Council called on the province to suspend implementation of the bill until those issues are resolved.
However nuanced, Bradford West Gwillimbury’s opposition may draw the same condemnation from Ontario Premier Doug Ford that Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie received earlier in the week.
At an event in Brampton, Ford called out Crombie and other municipal leaders who've voiced opposition to new housing legislation to "get on board" and "stop whining." Crombie later defended her opposition as standing up for her residents and attempting to avoid double-digit tax increases during the next decade.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario indicates that province-wide, Bill 23 could cost municipalities upward of $5 billion.
With files from the Canadian Press.
