'This is huge': York Region council expresses shock, frustration over financial losses from Bill 23

York Region councillors still reeling over potential financial fallout of province’s housing legislation

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 19, 2022
Kim Zarour

Are you outraged over the Ford government’s latest moves on the housing front?

Some members of York Region council believe you should be.

Similar to many municipalities across Ontario, York Region councillors are still reeling over the potential financial fallout of the province’s proposed Bill 23.

Two and a half weeks after the bill was passed, council members, at their Dec. 15 meeting, talked real numbers -- and they’re big ones.

According to a staff report submitted to council this week, the region stands to lose an estimated $645 million in development charges. These are fees previously paid by developers to help municipalities pay for the costs of growth, but are no longer eligible under Bill 23.

That includes $109 million in the next 10 years and approximately $200 million in the next 20 years for housing services, dollars that traditionally help pay for social housing.

“We’ve had the rug pulled out from under us,” said Newmarket Mayor John Taylor, chair of Housing York, the region’s not-for-profit housing corporation.

“I’m still in a state of shock. Under the guise of housing affordability, Bill 23, and other measures that are supposed to be addressing housing affordability, are literally recalculating how we allocate dollars to support the most vulnerable … This is huge.”

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing contends that municipalities have sufficient reserves to cover the costs and plans to conduct audits of municipalities to verify, but Laura Mirabella, the region’s commissioner of finance and treasurer, said the details -- which municipalities will be audited, when and how the process would work -- have not yet been released.

Taylor suggested that rather than wasting time, money and red tape conducting audits, the province should simply look at the “ample data” already available.

“To suggest that we’re rolling in money and that we have piles of reserves defies every study and every report and every piece of data out there,” Taylor said. “The public should be outraged. It’s something people care about more deeply than ever, that those who are most vulnerable are housed, and this is significantly undercutting our ability to do that.”

Paul Freeman, the region’s chief planner, agreed.

“The financing of housing is a big problem. The government has put all their eggs in one basket for the private market and developers to solve that problem. I think it’s much more challenging and complex than that.”

Most of the private market housing in York Region and across the province sells for well above typical affordability levels, he said.

The loss of development charges presents other significant problems for municipalities, said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti.

Under Bill 23, the cost of land needed for infrastructure, including parks, will no longer be eligible for development charges, he said.

The province has not defined which land would be excluded, but over the next 10 years, the region could see a shortfall of $75 million, Mirabella said.

Studies related to future growth -- necessary for planning active transportation, for example -- or age-friendly communities will also no longer be eligible for development charges, Scarpitti said.

If all the region’s studies are excluded, it would be an additional loss of $32 million over the next 10 years, Mirabella said.

Municipalities, most impacted by the new legislation, were not consulted during the drafting of Bill 23 and they will have to make up for the lost revenue in taxes or user fees, the staff report said.

Richmond Hill Mayor David West questioned how the provincial government will account for the impact of Bill 23, and what measures will be used to determine what the bill has achieved.

“I find it very frustrating that we’re using public dollars, (because without development charges, we are using public dollars), without having the accountability to make sure we’re producing a measurable public good.”