Ontario Bill 23 Forum concludes at Markham shopping centre

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 4, 2023

Ontario Bill 23 Forum, organized by Active Community Engagement Ontario, aimed to dissect the newly legislated Bill 23 and reveal its pros and cons to the local residents.

It was held on Dec. 16 at King Square Shopping Centre in Markham.

Markham and York regional Coun. Alan Ho and Markham Ward 2 Coun. Ritch Lau attended the forum to discuss with participants and answer questions raised while sharing their views.

Ontario Bill 23, also known as More Homes Built Faster Act, was introduced by Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark last October. It is a bill intended to speed up construction to address the housing supply shortage in the province by building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years.

The bill passed through the first reading on Oct. 25 and received royal assent on Nov. 28 to become a new law, which has brought controversy due to the short period of time for passing such an influential law.

Some opponents say the bill has not addressed the issue of affordable housing as it does not provide enough initiatives on the construction of affordable rental housing. One of the residents in attendance worried the changes would also lead to higher property taxes.

To aid land developers in speeding up new home construction and to lower the overall prices, the bill reduces the amount or exempts some of the land development fees that were supposed to be collected by the city. The effectiveness of this move, however, was questioned by both councillors.

Ho and Lau agreed it would not lower the home prices, and said the reduced amount of fees collected would eventually be covered by taxpayers. Otherwise, some municipal services would have to be cut to make up for the lost revenue.

On the other hand, they said speeding up home construction means the city will have to increase its capacity to build such things as roads, water supply and sewage, storm water management system, schools and community centres to facilitate the new homes and subdivisions. Ho and Lau questioned the capability of the city to accomplish the tasks in such a tight timeline.

“There is no doubt that the intention of legislating Bill 23 was good initially, as we certainly needed a policy in place to deal with our housing issue,” reads from the news release from ACE. “However, the passing of this bill seems to be a bit too quick for everyone to get to know what it is all about and it’s our goal to let the residents know more about this new bill, pay more attention to it, and be aware of how it would affect them.”