A mayor who stood with Ford government cabinet ministers to announce proposed law changes to speed up housing construction in Ontario now says she's disappointed by some of them.
A day after appearing alongside Housing Minister Rob Flack and multiple other members of Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet at their announcement of the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish told her council colleagues she felt “a little used and abused.”
“I was invited to go to the announcement because we're so progressive and we've done so much stuff here,” Parrish added at a May 13 city council meeting. “This is not as progressive a piece of legislation as I was expecting.”
Parrish was referring to significant cuts and discounts the city has approved to its development charges, fees that builders pay municipalities to fund infrastructure, to help incentivize new housing construction in the city.
Homebuilders' groups and provincial officials have applauded the city’s efforts, and the Mississauga mayor says the city is processing over 10,000 new units following the development charge changes.
In new statements to The Trillium, the Mississauga mayor said she “felt uninformed rather than ‘used and abused.’”
“I was asked to attend and happy to do so, but did not have the content of the bill.”
Parrish was joined by Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca, whose city has also recently cut development charges, at the May 12 announcement.
Having seen Bill 17 now, Parrish said she was let down that more wasn’t proposed in the new legislation to change the development charge (DC) “regime” in the province, including standardizing what costs they cover.
“DCs are too high,” she said. “They’ve grown to include everything but the kitchen sink. They need provincewide regulation.”
Development charges have recently been raised by housing advocates and experts as one of the causes of escalating housing costs.
The new legislation does not mandate cuts to development charges for most housing projects, but proposes to defer when they can be collected.
It would also allow municipalities to voluntarily lower development charges with fewer procedural requirements.
Flack told reporters earlier this month that development charges were important tools to fund infrastructure like drinking and waste water systems and — except for new long-term care projects — would not be cut.
A spokesperson for Flack told The Trillium that Parrish and the government agree that more homes need to be built faster and pointed to an unrelated April 29 statement the Mississauga mayor made around challenging the “status quo” to tackle the housing crisis.
“Changes in our government’s proposed legislation respond to recommendations and requests from municipal leaders, including the City of Mississauga, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Ontario Home Builders Association,” said Alexandra Sanita, Flack's spokesperson.
Bill 17 would also remove municipal powers to create local construction standards, something that has been used in Toronto and Mississauga to develop green building rules that ensure certain environmental features in construction.
Environmental advocates have panned this move, accusing the government of “scapegoating” green standards instead of tackling more consequential issues with housing construction.
Sanita defended the Ford government's proposal removing municipal powers to set out their own building rules.
“This will help standardize construction requirements and provide consistency, setting the same set of rules for everyone in Ontario, leading to faster approvals and reduced costs in Mississauga and across the province,” she said.
Flack has sent letters to Ontario municipalities outlining proposed changes to development charges, what planning reports cities can ask a builder to submit and the elimination of their power to enforce local construction codes, like green building standards.
Shortly after Bill 17 was introduced, City of Toronto staff were directed to investigate potential impacts of the new legislation on Toronto’s finances and programs next month.
“There’s a lot of people biting tongues," Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said at a May 13 city council executive committee meeting about the bill.
She pledged that council members would have a fulsome discussion about the province’s proposed changes when the staff report was presented.
Bill 17 was debated at second reading on May 15.
