Availability of housing has…

Availability of housing has been a major factor in my life lately. Unable to afford to buy a home, or even to rent an apartment, the housing crisis has been a top-of-mind issue for me for some time. While addressing the crisis is a major priority, I believe the specific actions proposed with respect to amending regulations under the Planning Act are deeply flawed.

Superseding local plans and zoning developed based on local issues and needs to instead implement the provincial government's wishes indiscriminately is likely to cause more problems than it solves, and forcing municipal taxpayers to pay the cost by exempting developers from paying fees, in addition to removing requirements for communities built under the new rules to have access to parkland, is hugely unfair. Downloading responsibility for complying with these new rules away from those with the expertise in the planning process and onto the lowest level of division is bound to create delays and extra costs associated with reduced efficiency. This is the likely result of Prohibiting upper-tier municipalities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe from coordinating planning across their municipality.

Removing people and experts from the planning process by reducing or eliminating consultation and eliminating the right to appeal decisions will only increase preventable problems by denying people who should be involved the ability to speak about their areas of expertise. Stripping people of their voice may lead to more construction faster, but that construction may be harmful if not everyone is welcome to propose amendments to plans and solutions to problems. It is short-sighted and aimed more at suppressing opposition than improving processes.

Requiring more transit-accessible development is laudable, so long as it is accomplished by intensifying near transit, rather than encouraging sprawl and construction of new transit in new developments.

Finally, requiring conservation authorities to dispose of public green spaces to be privatized and developed is in nobody's best interests. Already, people struggle to access the limited amount of public green space available, and reducing that availability will only lead to problems and exclusion.

I want to see more housing made more affordable. However, I do not want to see questionable solutions coming from those who have no experience with the problem, which is the overall theme of these amendments to the Planning Act.