Thank you for this…

Thank you for this opportunity to address the proposed changes to the Affordable Residential Unit under Bill 134.
The good news is that once again "affordable" is income-defined, rather than market value. That makes a great deal of difference to the population at or above the 60th income percentile.

What clearly needs further attention is the plight of those below the 60th percentile. There are interesting comments with reference to whose responsibility it is to ensure that there is housing within the income reach of those in lower percentiles, but the fact is they exist. I urge the levels of government to address this glaring gap.

Linking an absence of Development Charges as an incentive to construction of affordable homes is penny-wise, pound-foolish. Removing income from municipalities to provide services as parkland is a questionable strategy as the income burden returned to the municipality is counter-productive. Other possible tools would be a grant, incentive or rebate structures.

Finally there are too many unknowns in this initiative at this point. Tools for tracking the long range controls of rent levels and resale values, income monitoring, and who will be responsible for low income residents need to be included.