Councillor proposes earmarking condo development fees for downtown infrastructure

“Our kids have no place to run and play, our schools are at capacity, and yet we’re still wedging 100,000 residents a year into the city,” Ward 27 councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam said.

Thestar.com
Nov. 15, 2016
By Luke Simcoe

With the city continuing to rubber stamp massive new residential developments in the downtown core, local councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam has a message for her colleagues on council: show me the money.

The Ward 27 councillor represents some of the fastest growing neighbourhoods in Toronto - 18,200 condo units are planned or under construction on Yonge St. alone, between Dundas and Bloor - and says it’s time the downtown received its “fair share” of funding to support that density.

She’s asking city staff to consider earmarking fees paid by downtown developers for downtown projects. Currently, the cash is put into general revenue and distributed across the city - a policy that she feels is leaving downtown behind.

“Our infrastructure has not kept pace with development,” she said. “Our kids have no place to run and play, our schools are at capacity, and yet we’re still wedging 100,000 residents a year into the city, most of whom are going to locate in the downtown.”

There is already a separate development levy, Section 37, that allows councillors to set aside money for local projects, but Wong-Tam said it’s not generating enough to handle such “unprecedented” growth.

“Some councillors have to save Section 37 funds for eight or 10 years before they can build a community centre,” she said.

A report on Wong-Tam’s request is due in January, when it will be discussed at city council. The notion of redirecting funds from the suburbs into the downtown may not sit well with her colleagues, but she’s confident she can sway them.

“Even the most parochial councillor would agree that if you don’t have a prosperous and vibrant downtown you’ll choke off the goose that lays the golden egg,” she said, noting the downtown core is responsible for the lion’s share of Toronto’s GDP.

Wong-Tam has mused about a possible moratorium on development downtown, until the city can complete its new plan for managing growth in the core. However, she said the city doesn’t have that authority, so she’s looking at other stopgap measures to prevent growth from overwhelming existing infrastructure and services.

“Nobody in my community or the neighbourhoods I represent disagrees with hitting the pause button,” she said. “But we don’t have the legal mechanisms to do it, so we have to get creative.”