Top 5: Elected chair, possible road tax on 2018 agenda in York Region
York Region will push for provincial commitment for extension of Yonge subway
YorkRegion.com
Jan. 4, 2018
Lisa Queen
With this term of council ending with the municipal elections on Oct. 22, here are some of the issues facing York Region during 2018:
- For the first time, York Region voters will directly elect their regional chair, arguably the most important political job in the region. The provincial government passed legislation making it mandatory for the Oct. 22 municipal election. Current chair, Wayne Emmerson, has said he will run for the job. Contenders will likely announce their intentions early in the year, given the money and time required to mount a campaign.
- In the spring, councillors will debate whether to introduce a road tax, which would boost the regional portion of the property tax by an additional one per cent over each of the following five years. The region is as much as $1.5 billion short of the money it requires for road works, which has resulted in dozens of projects being pushed off for several years. The tax would allow some of those projects to be brought forward.
- The region will be working to secure full approval to extend the Yonge Street subway north from Finch Avenue to Richmond Hill. In June 2016, the provincial government ponied up $55 million to be used for preliminary design work. The region is lobbying the province to commit fully to the $4 billion project, which would accommodate more than 165,000 riders on weekdays.
- The region will have to determine how the new national housing strategy will be implemented here. The $40 billion strategy is aimed at building up to 100,000 new affordable homes for 530,000 Canadian families over the next 10 years, with the hope of cutting chronic homelessness in half.
- The region will launch YTN Telecom Network Inc., a corporation designed to leverage the potential of the region’s public sector fibre network and extend coverage into the region’s underserved communities.
