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Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday he doesn’t believe the loss of development charges included in a housing bill his government passed this week will hurt municipalities and said they are likely to make up some of the shortfall. by cutting waste.
“I don’t believe it’s true,” Ford said at an announcement in Toronto when asked by reporters if he thought the bill would hurt municipalities’ finances.
He promised that “we will not give up on development fees.”
The comments came a day after Housing Minister Steve Clark promised in a letter to Toronto Mayor John Tory that the province would make Toronto “full” for the loss of revenue, though Clark did not specify if that is on a dollar-for-dollar basis. basis.
Bill 23, which was passed this week, cuts or waives municipal development charges for developers as a way to try and incentivize them to build more rental and affordable housing.
Tory said the move could be devastating to Toronto’s finances, with the city estimating a revenue loss of about $200 million per year.
Although Clark promised to make the city whole, he also said Wednesday that the province will launch a third-party audit of municipal reserve funds.
At a news conference yesterday, Tory said a false impression has been created that the city is squirrelling all the funds from the bills.
“I think the audit will find that what we did was fair and prudent and reasonable, and this idea that was created that we’re sitting on some piggy bank of money that we can allocate to take care of anything is just. nonsense. ,” the mayor said.
He said that while the development fees the city collects are not used immediately, they are put in reserve to pay for projects the city knows it will need to undertake, similar to a homeowner saving for a new roof.
Contrary to Ford’s comments, Tory said the loss of development charges represents a threat to the city’s finances, a threat they need if necessary.
“We will make our voices heard on this matter in a manner commensurate with the magnitude of this threat to the welfare of this city and indeed other cities across the province,” he said on Wednesday.
But in his comments on Thursday, the premier cast doubt on the idea that the municipal government is properly managing its funds.
“I spent four years there as part of the audit committee, (as) vice chair,” Ford said, referring to his time at city hall when his brother was mayor. “I know there is waste in the city and we want to work with all the cities and municipalities,” said Ford.
He said there is waste at all levels of government “and it’s our job as prudent fiscal managers for the taxpayers to drive away the waste.”
He said he found it “shocking” that cities would push against the move.
“They want to increase the development charges. Who does this during the housing crisis? Nobody does that,” Ford said.
He said city fees are being passed on to homebuyers and suggested that increasing fees to developers is driving up the value of homes.
But the Ford government has in the past refused to reign in some realtor practices, such as blind bidding, which have been criticized for artificially inflating home prices.
Recent television commercials paid for by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and other groups have sought to define the problem of housing affordability as having to do with supply and red tape, as well as municipal fees.
The PC government is also opening up previously protected lands for development. Asked Thursday if he or anyone in his government had tipped developers to buy some of that land before the changes were announced — land that at the time could not be developed for housing — Ford said no.
“Yes, I can prove that,” he said when asked if he was sure no one in his government had tipped off the developers about the move ahead of time.
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