York Region officials and other municipalities sent a message to the province about the need for support and cooperation to meet the housing crisis.
A contingent of York Region staff was part of the housing forum organized by the provincial government Nov. 27. The housing forum invited municipalities, industry representatives and advocates to discuss how to address housing and work toward meeting provincial targets.
York Region treasurer Laura Mirabella attended in her capacity as chair of the Ontario Regional and Single Tier Treasurers and said it was a “very productive conversation.” She said her key message was the need for co-operation.
“All levels of government need to work together,” she said, adding that building out the high amount of infrastructure needed to service all the houses to come poses a financial risk for municipalities. “We need our senior government partners to come to the table with some funding to reduce that risk from municipalities.”
Municipalities have sounded some alarms about the provincial housing targets, totalling 1.5 million homes over 10 years. Newmarket has said this is not feasible due to infrastructure and tried to pare down its provincially imposed target from 12,00 to 6,400. York Region and other municipalities have also raised concern, noting that developers can ultimately sit on a building permit without acting.
The province plans to allocate funding based on the progress municipalities are making toward achieving these housing targets. But Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra declined a request from big city mayors to base that on building permits issued, rather than housing starts, despite concerns about developers not acting quickly to build due to market conditions.
"Look, there's more time left in the year. That's what the housing forum today is about,” Calandra said.
Mirabella said the municipal position has always been that municipalities cannot control when a housing build starts.
“There can be a significant time lapse between when site plans are approved and when building permits are issued, and that is entirely in the control of developers,” she said, adding that is based on developer circumstances and market conditions.
Still, Mirabella said the province was in listening mode throughout the forum, as it prepares to make a new housing supply action plan in 2024.
“Our government will continue to take action and work closely with our partners at all levels of government to implement our ambitious plan to build more homes people can afford,” Calandra said in a news release.
The region’s budget is counting on local municipalities meeting 60 per cent of their housing targets over the next 10 years, but Mirabella said they hope they can do better than that. However, finances are an issue, she said.
"Those are the parameters we have used for our cash flow forecasting to make sure our debt levels are sustainable,” she said. “We’ll revisit those in future budget processes."
-With files from the Canadian Press
