Stouffville council voices opposition to province's Bill 23

Town staff estimated the town would receive $19.6 million less in revenue from 2024-2028 due to changes in development charges

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 11, 2023
Simon Martin

The Town of Stouffville added its voice to a chorus of municipalities that have said they do not support Bill 23 in its current format. At a council meeting Dec. 21, Town staff estimated the town would receive $19.6 million less in revenue from 2024-2028 due to changes in development charges. They also cited changes to parkland allotment in developments as a concern.

Ward 2 Coun. Maurice Smith said it’s important for the town to communicate with residents about what these changes could mean for their tax bill. Mayor Iain Lovatt said some municipalities are making it a line item on property tax bills to show residents what the changes are costing them.

Ward 1 Coun. Hugo Kroon said every municipality in the province is trying to figure out what these changes mean. “This is all new for everybody,” he said. “We have to come up with some novel new ways to deal with this.”

Ward 6 Coun. Sue Sherban said the changes are going to be hard to deal with. “This is going to be one of our worst terms on council,” she said.

Lovatt said he is holding on to tiny shred of hope that the province will make municipalities because they promised to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered.

York Region is dealing with similar problems. According to a staff report submitted to regional council last month, 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.

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.