Doug Ford giveth development charges and Doug Ford taketh them away.
A new funding stream for municipalities is winning plaudits from developers and local officials — especially after the PCs cut affordable housing development charges — though some worry about the province downloading more responsibility onto local governments.
Stakeholders speaking at the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy on Wednesday gave their thoughts on Bill 131, which has two parts.
Schedule 1 aims to charge riders a flat fee for transit journeys that cross municipal borders in the GTA, by allowing the TTC to forge agreements with municipalities or local boards. The Ford government is also planning to integrate GO Transit and TTC fares by the end of the year.
Schedule 2 would let municipalities levy new development charges on housing projects near GO Transit stations, to fund the design and construction of the stations.
Durham Region Chair John Henry said he saw the new charges as a way to finally move forward a four-stop GO Train extension to Bowmanville, which the region has wanted for more than 30 years.
"In addition to having all four GO stations open on day one, this collaboration could unlock up to 36,000 housing units around these stations and create over 41,000 news jobs as indicated in the Region’s Official Plan," Henry said.
Mark Conway, an urban planner and the president of N. Barry Lyon Consultants, said proximity to transit is valued extremely highly by new buyers, especially young people.
For developers, having to build less parking will be a "mammoth impact," Conway added. The requirement drops from one parking space per unit to 0.7 when a building is near transit, he said.
Conway said the new charge should be an elegant solution to pay for the GO stations with "no upward pressure on home prices."
NDP transit critic Joel Harden said he's never heard of municipalities being asked to take on the "financial risk" for provincial infrastructure. Metrolinx should fund these stations, he suggested.
Well, it isn't, Henry said. Plus, this arrangement will make sure the people who use the transit will pay for it, not people living far away, he said.
Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter also wouldn't bite, saying all partners need to do their part to get transit built.
"I refuse to sit here and say, 'Province, you must do it,'" he said. "If we want the services, we have to be part of the solution."
Conway said he also hasn't heard of a funding arrangement like this one before, but “we think the risks are minimal.”
The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario has quietly echoed Harden's concerns but hasn't yet taken a hard stance on the bill.
The new stream will let municipalities move faster on new GO stations than they could if they only relied on provincial funding, said Michael Sutherland, the director of urban solutions and infrastructure at Hatch, a management, engineering and development consultancy.
August Puranauth with TTC Riders also raised concerns about an increased burden on local governments, for instance, if the new charges cover construction costs, but not ongoing maintenance.
Deputants also had some questions about Schedule 1, but were supportive.
Letting people travel seamlessly across the GTA will be great for productivity, said David Campbell, the associate VP of policy and research at the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
Right now, people are incentivized to use as few different transit providers as possible, resulting in inefficient, slow trips and certain lines being over- or underused, he said.
Lots of York University students use different transit systems to get to campus, said Ijade Maxwell Rodrigues, the school's chief of government and community relations and protocol. Many have said poor transit has impacted their academic career and dissuaded them from coming to campus — so anything that will make the process easier is welcome, she said.
Puranauth said TTC Riders also supports a "flat fare" model. But they stressed the need for the provincial government to fund minimum service levels.
"Toronto transit users do not want to see TTC routes replaced with less frequent service levels provided by 905 agencies," they said, adding that the TTC shouldn't lose out on fare revenue to other agencies under the new plan.
