After reviewing this…

After reviewing this legislation I can only conclude that the results will enrich developers and force municipalities to increase their tax rates to cover the revenues they will lose that currently pay for the building of roads and other infrastructure needed to support growth.
After having spent many years working with developers on development charge issues, reducing and eliminating the charge without any mechanism to ensure those cost reductions get passed to the home purchaser, will stay in the developers pockets. It isn't cost that determines price, it is the market. Developers set their home prices on current market trends, so you may get more homes built, but they won't be in the affordable category.
The impact to municipalities will be significant lost development charge revenue. The removal of land for roads as an eligible cost to be recovered from DC's alone will run into the millions for cities with green field development. Municipalities will either have to raise the general tax rate to pay for the required infrastructure or look to have an area specific tax rate to cover the cost. Any smart municipal politician will let their electorate know the tax increase is a direct result of Bill 23. Requiring updated DC's to be phased in over 5 years will result in more lost revenue for municipalities but in the past I have seen developers increase the home price by the full DC increase a year before the change was even made. This becomes a convenient way for them to increase their profits as the general public knows nothing about DC's.
If the province was truly serious about wanting to have more homes built that are affordable (from a consumer perspective, not a market perspective) it should consider eliminating the provincial land transfer tax when an affordable home is sold. This would be a cost reduction that benefits the purchaser directly. It would slightly reduce provincial revenues but that could be seen as balancing against what municipalities will lose.
This legislation requires a rethink but I have lost confidence that the current government will do that.