Alayne McGregor
Banging pots and chanting, a 100+ crowd from nine community organizations raised a kerfuffle about the provincial More Homes Built Faster Act (Bill 23) on December 7.
They objected to the bill’s negative effects on heritage protection, parkland, wetland and greenbelt protection, green building standards, community appearance, support for tenants, and affordable housing. Speaker after speaker called for the bill’s repeal.
But their noise made no difference to the provincial government, which had passed the bill the previous week after minimal consultation, over the strong objections of the NDP, Greens, and Liberals, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and local conservation authorities and environmental groups.
The province then followed up with the even more controversial Better Municipal Governance Act (Bill 39) which will allow the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to pass a bylaw with the support of only one-third of city council if the “bylaw could potentially advance a prescribed provincial priority.”
The Ontario Legislature passed Bill 39 last week. Ottawa City Council told the province it opposed the bill, and wished to retain passing bylaws by majority vote. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he is not interested in using this power.
Bill 23 will have major effects on city planning operations, while at the same time cutting millions from the development charge (DC) funds used to pay for services for new developments. A preliminary financial analysis by city staff released Nov. 25 estimated the changes could cost the city well over $60 million annually or about 25 percent of DC revenues starting in 2025.
“The Bill 23 amendments designed to increase housing supply will disproportionately impact the increase in revenue required to service land in advance of future residential development.”
This means “conclusively that growth will not pay for growth,” the analysis said.
Somerset Ward Councillor Ariel Troster told the protest that “this terrible bill” will “strip the city of the revenue we need to build community, not just homes.” She said city staff told her that the tax increase required to compensate for the bill would be over 3.5 percent. She was worried the city was entering a period of austerity “and yet this is the time when we need services more than ever. This bill guts the city’s ability to fund those services.”
Councillor Theresa Kavanagh said the bill would not help the current crisis in affordable housing in Ottawa. The province’s introduction of the bill was “pretty sneaky,” she said. “If they really wanted to work with municipalities, why did they put a bill out the day after the [city] election when we couldn’t even talk about it?”
An ACORN representative said the bill guts a recent city policy calling for 10 percent affordable housing near transit, by only allowing five percent and only for 25 years.
Pointing to recent wins by education workers, Councillor Shawn Menard told the crowd not to back down.
“We know that people power can overpower this government. So do not stop.”