Ontario to audit municipal funding gap due to housing law, pledges to cover shortfall
Ontario is promising to make municipalities "whole," if they can't fund housing infrastructure and services due to a new provincial law.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark wrote to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to say the province was launching a third-party audit of municipal finances in "select" communities, focused on reserve funds and the fees housing developers pay.
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
"It is critical that municipalities are able to fund and contract road, water, sewer, and other housing enabling infrastructure and services that our growing communities need," Clark wrote.
"There should be no funding shortfall for housing enabling infrastructure as a result of Bill 23, provided municipalities achieve and exceed their housing pledge levels and growth targets."
The government has not yet identified which municipalities would be subject to the audits but is pledging to work with the association and the Ontario Big City Mayors to come up with a list. Clark wrote separately to Toronto Mayor John Tory with the promise of an audit and keeping the city "whole."
Association president Colin Best said Clark's commitment was a "welcome and very positive development."
"AMO is very pleased with the government's recognition of the need to ensure municipalities' access to revenues to support the joint provincial-municipal goal of increasing housing supply and affordability," he wrote in a statement
Steve Clark, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, speaks to journalists at the Queens Park Legislature, in Toronto on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
The bill passed Monday would, in part, freeze, reduce and exempt fees developers pay on certain builds such as affordable housing.
Those fees go to municipalities and are then used to pay for services to support new homes, such as road and sewer infrastructure. Communities across the province have expressed concern that they will have to raise property taxes to fund those services.
When it introduced the bill last month, the Ford government identified 29 municipalities in which the bulk of new housing will need to be built in order to reach its goal of 1.5 million new homes in 10 years. Ontario will require them to develop "pledges" of how they will meet their assigned targets. Toronto, for example, will need 285,000 new homes.
The association has said the changes to development charges will leave communities short $5 billion and see taxpayers footing the bill, either in the form of higher property taxes or service cuts.
But Clark has said municipalities have billions of development charge revenues in reserve and the additional costs on new homes must be "reined in."
Clark said that since 2010, municipal fees and taxes on new homebuyers in Toronto have increased by close to 600 per cent.
He said he hopes municipalities and the province can work together on the audit.
"We are committing to ensuring municipalities are kept whole for any impact to their ability to fund housing enabling infrastructure because of Bill 23," Clark wrote.
Clark also told Tory that Ontario would cover up to one-third of the city's operating deficit for this year, which it estimates at $703 million.
"It is critical that you use this support and the time it provides to take action to address Toronto's forward-looking operating pressures," Clark wrote.
Tory said that the federal government now needs to commit funding.
"(We) need to have the government of Canada address its clear commitment to assist with what is an exclusively COVID-19 related shortfall being experienced in a more substantial way by Canada's largest city, with Canada's largest urban economy, Canada's largest transit system by far, and the biggest regional challenge sheltering people, including refugees," the mayor wrote in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
2-hour wildfire evacuation notice issued for some Fort McMurray neighbourhoods
A wildfire evacuation alert for some Fort McMurray residents has been updated to a two-hour evacuation notice.
LIVE NOW Sask. RCMP provide update on 'significant' sexual assault, child exploitation investigation
Saskatchewan RCMP are set to provide an update on what the service calls a 'significant' sexual assault and internet child exploitation investigation.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
American sought after 'So I raped you' Facebook message detained in France on 2021 warrant
An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said, 'So I raped you,' has been detained in France after a three-year search.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
1 killed, 3 injured in head-on crash on Hwy. 417 in Ottawa
Ontario Provincial Police are responding to a fatal collision involving two vehicles on Highway 417 in Ottawa's west end on Tuesday morning.
Significant police presence as Israeli flag flies at Ottawa City Hall
The Israeli flag is flying at Ottawa City Hall today to mark the country's national day, with plans to hold a private ceremony to mark Israel's Independence Day. There is a significant police presence at City Hall, including security barriers outside the main doors.