Cobourg concerned Bill 23 will have ‘potentially detrimental impacts’

Planning director notes higher taxes, user fees may be necessary to offset loss of development charges

Northumberlandnews.com
Dec. 1, 2022
Al Rivett

Higher property taxes and/or user fees will be the net result of the Ontario government’s just-passed Bill 23, Town of Cobourg’s director of planning Anne Taylor Scott told council at a recent special meeting.

Bill 23, also known as the More Houses Built Faster Act, was the centre of attention on the night of Nov. 28, with council learning more about Bill 23 via a presentation by Taylor Scott.

Bill 23, which passed into law at Queen’s Park, is considered an omnibus bill, as it enables changes to the Planning Act, Development Charges Act, Heritage Conservation Act and the Conservation Authorities Act. It also allows 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt to be developed, while adding 9,400 acres to the Greenbelt.

Taylor Scott said the purpose of the bill is to allow the province to build 1.5 million houses over the next 10 years, which breaks down to 150,000 homes per year. However, she said the reality is that Ontario is only reaching 100,000 homes per year.

She noted ramifications of Bill 23 on Cobourg will be many, especially related to changes to development charges (DC), which are charged to developers and used to pay for growth, including infrastructure, such as roads, transit, etc.

Those costs would now be largely downloaded to municipalities, said Taylor Scott.

“Overall, these changes will result in an adjustment to service levels and/or a property tax increase,” said Taylor Scott.

Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty asked Taylor Scott who would be paying for the loss of DCs from developers, noting Cobourg is already a “cash-strapped municipality.”

Scott replied if development charges aren’t paid by developers, they will fall to municipalities.

“While there may be incentives, and some relief and phasing in of development charges, it doesn’t change the capital costs that have to be covered. So, if the development charges aren’t recovered in a manner to pay for those costs, there has to be money come from other sources, from taxation or user fees,” she said.

Beatty’s question was also referred to Ian Davey, director of corporate services/treasurer, who noted the cost to the town isn’t known as of yet.

“It’s important to remember these infrastructure projects will have to built at some point in time … It could lead to higher infrastructure charges down the road,” said Davey. “As far as actual dollar amounts as what it might impact on the municipality, we don’t have that calculated at this point.”

Mayor Lucas Cleveland, who is also Cobourg’s representative on Northumberland County Council, noted preliminary estimates from the county are $2.5 million per year in losses of development charges.

Town of Cobourg CEO Tracey Vaughan noted the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) is estimating the total cost load to municipalities across Ontario could be $1 billion.

“While we can’t have concrete estimates at this time, we do have a lot of organizations running scenarios to understand what those transfer costs could be,” said Vaughan.

Cleveland noted at the special meeting that there was plenty of anger directed at Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini in a recent meeting involving mayors from Northumberland municipalities.

“At a meeting (last) Friday (Nov. 25), with all the mayors at MPP Piccini’s office, to say it was a difficult meeting for MPP Piccini would be an understatement,” said Cleveland. “The mayors definitely had some not-so-nice words to speak to and we are not alone in this.”

In Taylor Scott’s presentation to council, she noted Bill 23 “will have significant and potentially detrimental impacts to our community, including to the town’s environment, heritage resources, financial position and overall land-use planning processes that have resulted in livable and complete neighbourhoods in the town.”

For example, she said Bill 23 scales back the role of conservation authorities in the province, with land conservation and pollution no longer under their purview.

Taylor Scott warned the town will lose the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority’s expertise relating to environmental impact study (EIS) review and water resources engineering.

“The development staff work very closely with the CA staff with reviewing development to ensure they are meeting all types of environmental guides and best practices. The question now is if GRCA is not able to provide that expertise, who does that?

“Unfortunately, we do not have staff resources in house who will do that review ... and at what cost? (It's) unforeseen as to how that will speed up the development process; it may in fact have the opposite effect.”

She noted conservation authorities are also tasked with freeing up land for development under Bill 23, which could open development in currently identified natural areas that serve for flood reduction, biodiversity and water quality and could have liability and insurance and long-term maintenance implications to the town.

Although the province has already passed Bill 23, council passed a resolution at the meeting, noting myriad problems the bill will create in municipalities across Ontario. It asks that the province engage in further evaluation, analysis and meaningful consultation with municipalities and stakeholders.

Cobourg’s resolution was sent to MPP Piccini, as well as to the provincial commenting window for the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022.