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Mississauga’s mayor and other municipal leaders who have voiced opposition to a new provincial housing law need to “get on board” and “stop whining,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday in an impromptu that criticism.
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Ford spoke with mayors who expressed concerns over legislation that would reduce or eliminate some municipal revenue from developers, but singled out Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie after she made an unrelated announcement in nearby Brampton , Ont.
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“We have some mayors who, you know, don’t want to play in the sandbox and one is mayor Crombie, and I don’t know what his issue is,” Ford said.
The premier said he was asking for the cooperation of Crombie and all other mayors.
“If we sit back and think something magical is going to happen, or you think when people come here we’re going to start living in mud huts – it’s not going to happen under our government,” he said.
“We want to work together, work with you, but we need to get on board and start moving forward and stop the whining and complaining that I hear every day.”
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Crombie responded with a lengthy statement refuting many of Ford’s points.
“I’m not complaining, I’m just doing my job as mayor to stand up for our residents and taxpayers,” she wrote.
“We are trying to build a great city and accommodate growth, but right now, this law will force us to put the brakes on these plans due to lack of funding or significantly increase taxes by up to 10 percent on a year for the next decade. I think we can all agree that none of us want that.”
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says the new law could leave municipalities $5 billion short and see taxpayers footing the bill – either in the form of higher property taxes or service cuts – to pay for the infrastructure that supports new housing. It also said nothing in the bill would guarantee improved housing affordability.
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Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark said in response that he will launch a third-party audit of the finances of select municipalities to determine if the law will actually create a deficit and if so, the province will make communities that “whole.”
Ford said Mississauga has increased its fees to new home buyers by nearly 30 per cent in the past two years and is making it harder for people to buy a home. He also accused Mississauga of not fully spending the development fee revenues it receives now, saying the city is sitting on millions of dollars in development fee reserves.
“I see that Mayor Crombie is out there handing out flyers and doing this — all I’m saying is get on board, stop being disloyal, you know, to the people of Mississauga,” Ford said. “This is completely wrong.”
Crombie said the development charges go into reserves, but municipalities aren’t just sitting on the money, instead treating it like savings toward future long-term projects, similar to a home owner saving for a new roof.
“We don’t collect money we don’t need, and we don’t have unlimited checking accounts,” Crombie wrote.
“In fact, the funds we collect are often not enough to support new growth — we’re often short and have to use tax dollars to cover the gaps.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on December 7, 2022.
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