[thistleclub]

Who are the winners — and losers — in the Ford government's new housing supply plan?
(CBC, Lauren Pelley, May 4 2019)

While speaking to reporters after the province announced a new plan to boost housing supply, Tim Hudak could barely contain his glee.

Wide-eyed and grinning, the CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association — and a former leader of the Ontario PC party — said the current Ford government clearly listened to his organization's recommendations, which came during a round of stakeholder consultations last winter.

"[We] put 10 ideas on the table on how we can make home ownership more affordable for average families," Hudak said. "And we're really excited because the government took up eight of those ideas."

Ideas like speeding up housing approvals, reducing red tape and controlling development charges funnelled to municipalities — it's all in the legislation. So are recommendations on building above and around transit stations, building more secondary suites, and building on surplus government land.

With that, one thing is clear: there are winners and losers through the province's housing plan, and there's no doubt the real estate and development industries are coming out on top.

So who's not?

While Hudak had reason to smile, city officials from Toronto — and likely other municipalities — aren't so cheery.

"Municipal cost-recovery tools such as development charges must be left alone," reads the Association of Municipalities of Ontario submission to the winter consultations.

No dice. Instead, the province is overhauling those fees, which are collected by roughly 200 municipalities to fund infrastructure ranging from transit to community centres to roads.

The changes include lumping together several avenues to collect that revenue into one new "community benefits" fee — coupled with the creation of an overall, yet-to-be-determined upper limit on what can be charged.


Read it in full here.