Mississauga city council unanimously blasts Ontario’s new housing bill

Thestar.com
June 3, 2019
Ali Raza

The province’s new housing legislation is “a plan made by people who don’t have a clue how municipalities work,” Councillor Pat Saito said at a council meeting on May 22.

Councillor Carolyn Parrish called Bill 108 “diabolical,” adding “the devil wrote this thing.”

Mississauga city council and staff unanimously declared their distaste with Bill 108 -- More Homes, More Choice Act at a recent council meeting. The legislation was presented May 2 by Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark as the province’s housing supply action plan. Intended to increase the supply of housing in Ontario, including rental housing, city council says the bill favours developers passing costs onto the city and consumers.

Bill 108 transforms the province’s current land use planning system including changes to 13 existing acts, updated regulations and changes to provincial planning policies, a staff report outlined. The bill also doesn’t contain approaches outlined in Mississauga’s own housing strategy and assumes that reduced fees for developers and shorter approval timelines will result in more homes being constructed, the report reads.

“The view is that changes to development charges, approval timelines, and Local Planning Appeals Tribunal rules will result in more housing and cheaper rent and costs,” the city’s planning strategies director Jason Bevan told city council at meeting last week.

Bevan explained that Bill 108 assumes that savings from reduced development charges will be passed on to purchasers and renters. He added that shorter approval timelines will result in less public consultation, and changes to LPAT would give developers more powers to appeal planning decisions made by city council.

“We have not seen any evidence that reducing fees and timelines for developers will result in the creation of more affordable housing or that savings will be passed along to consumers,” Mayor Bonnie Crombie said. “The long-held principle that ‘growth pays for growth’ would no longer apply, resulting in existing taxpayers and residents footing a larger share of the bill for new growth.”

Mississauga has 20,000 pre-zoned residential units ready to be constructed and less than 10 per cent of approved units have been built. The city insists there are no barriers to building in Mississauga.

The bill potentially reduces the amount of money available for soft services that come from development charges including libraries, community centres and parkland

“This is the very infrastructure that promotes health, social inclusion and drives quality of life in a community,” city manager Janice Baker said.

The staff report details the proposed impacts of Bill 108. It includes the introduction of a community benefit charge that combines soft services development charges, Section 37 (bonus zoning) and parkland, changes to the Planning Act, changes to the administration of development charges, and changes to appeals of development applications, new regulations on inclusionary zoning and major transit station areas, and changes to how endangered species are classified.

The city has made a formal submission to the province expressing its problems with the legislation. Bill 108 has passed a second reading at Queen’s Park.