1. Waiving development…

1. Waiving development charges is nakedly a handout to developers, not a genuine effort to improve affordability.
a. This policy clearly does nothing to supply more housing to communities where housing crisis is
most acute and affordability is most necessary (i.e. those where constructing new housing is least profitable to developers and corporate landowners)
2. Eliminating community benefit charges further guts community funding.
a. Such funding is necessary for planning and development of complete communities.
b. Cities/municipalities now must make up for the significant loss of CBCs with funding from other sources
3. Proposed changes would weaken important requirements that maintain park land in intensifying neighbourhoods.
a. Access to unencumbered green space is vitally important for community well-being
b. Green space is more and more critical as Ontario’s climate warms, yet this policy may lead to a reduction in the proportion of urban green spaces, which are necessary for the cooling effects they provide (alleviating heat islands in densely built-up urban areas).