Some of Canada’s premiers are calling on the federal government to stop unilaterally giving municipalities cash in exchange for relaxing restrictive zoning policies and are considering passing legislation to try to force their way into negotiations.
Premiers were in Halifax on Nov. 5 and 6 for the Council of the Federation meetings on some of the most pressing issues facing the country.
Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s July cabinet shuffle, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has been cutting deals with municipalities using the $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund.
The basic pitch: federal funds for municipal zoning reform.
His work has been cheered on by many housing advocates. Canada’s premiers, however, aren’t too happy with the towering federal minister going over their heads.
“The lack of collaboration” creates “duplicate processes and really risks pitting provinces and territories against one another. This is not a good thing. It’s not in the best interest of the federation,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said on Monday.
“So we asked that the federal government collaborate with provinces. Collaborate with us and work with us as active partners when developing and executing federal housing programs,” added Houston, chair of the Council of the Federation.
It’s such a sore spot that the premiers may try to prevent municipalities from negotiating with the feds.
“We also agreed to explore legislative options that would require provincial authorization before municipalities or public agencies can enter into any agreements with the federal government,” Houston said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford had strong words, too.
“You can’t have the federal government going into a certain town or certain city and dumping funding and not even discussing with the province. That's unacceptable. We call it jurisdictional creep,” Ford said.
“We look forward to hopefully them changing their mind, not surprising each and every one of us one morning when they're in A, B, or C town, dropping millions of dollars, when that's not their jurisdiction,” he added.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Quebec has had success with a similar law.
“You can't argue with success. (The Quebec and federal governments) just announced $900 million for housing as a result of negotiating on behalf of all of their municipalities, and now all of their municipalities will have an equal opportunity to access those funds,” Smith said.
To Mike Moffatt, a leading housing expert and founder of the Place Centre, the comments are “highly problematic.”
“We have a housing crisis and we've got the federal government working to address it, that is giving cities infrastructure money in exchange for badly, badly needed reforms,” Moffatt said in an interview.
“There's an irony here that most of the things the federal government is asking for in the Housing Accelerator Fund are things that were in (Ontario's provincial housing affordability task force report) that the provincial government hasn't acted on,” he said.
“The federal government is doing things to incentivize changes that the provinces should have been doing.”
If the premiers are worried about Ottawa getting involved in provincial jurisdiction, they can liberalize municipal zoning rules themselves, he added.
Housing wasn’t the only topic of conversation. Ahead of the meeting, Ford said his priorities revolved around the rising cost of living.
“Whether it’s investing in key infrastructure to help improve economic productivity, bolstering domestic supply chains, or ensuring Canada’s immigration policies are attracting skilled workers, more needs to be done to provide relief to people,” he said in a statement.
“This includes providing fairness to all Canadians regardless of how they heat their home. People across the country are struggling, and everyone deserves a break. That’s why I’m calling on the federal government to do the right thing and cut the carbon tax for all Canadians.”
The premiers continued to voice displeasure with the federal government’s carbon tax pause on home heating oil.
“On the affordability file one immediate action that we discussed as premiers that can be taken to address the affordability challenges is to ensure that all Canadians are treated fairly by the federal government when it comes to the federal carbon tax and home heating,” Houston said.
In late October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a three-year carbon tax exemption for home heating oil and more money for Atlantic Canadians to switch to heat pumps.
The pause doesn’t apply to most of Ontario, as less than three per cent of households use oil to heat their homes. The vast majority of Ontarians use natural gas and propane.
After Trudeau’s stunning walk back, Ford and his ministers pounced. Nearly every question period since has included softballs from PC backbenchers allowing Energy Minister Todd Smith to call on the federal government to extend the pause to natural gas and propane users.
“These families and households are still facing the same challenges as the 2.5 per cent of people who use home heating fuel. They’re the only ones that are being exempted from the carbon tax by Canada’s federal government. It doesn’t make any sense,” Smith said on Oct. 30.
Trudeau and some of his top ministers have flatly denied more carbon tax exemptions are coming.
“There will absolutely not be any other carve-outs or suspensions of the price on pollution," Trudeau told reporters on Halloween.
