I am writing as a concerned…

I am writing as a concerned citizen to urgently request that the implementation of Bill 23 be halted so that the many concerns identified by municipalities, equitable housing organizations, and environmental organizations can be addressed.

Bill 23 states that "an affordable housing unit would be any unit that is no greater than 80 per cent of the average resale purchase price for ownership or 80 per cent of the average market rent for rental, for a period of 25 years" and "Affordable housing units would also be exempt from parkland dedication requirements to incent the supply of attainable housing units, a residential unit, in a development designated through regulation, would be exempt from development charges, parkland dedication requirements and community benefit charges."

This definition of "affordable housing" is completely inadequate. Truly affordable housing and rentals should cost far less than 80% of market price- in fact, the definition of affordable housing is that it must cost no more than 30% of a household's income. Furthermore, affordable housing should not come at the cost of undermining quality of life by reducing the amount of parkland and other urban services that developers must contribute towards.

By exempting developers from municipal development charges, the Bill is not guaranteeing that those savings will be passed on to citizens. Nor is it likely that hastily built housing will be good quality, and it certainly will not protect the environment in urban and peri-urban areas. Bill 23 will simply allow developers to pocket huge profits while passing the costs- economic, social and environmental- on to municipal residents, since Municipalities will be forced to raise taxes in order to pay for the increased infrastructure costs that go along with development.

Lastly, Bill 23 erodes democracy at the municipal level, by taking away the power of citizens to participate meaningfully in urban planning, to have their interests represented by elected officials in the face of pressure from private interests such as developers. Developers will be able to bypass the urban plans that have so painstakingly been created, with extensive public input. This will undermine our democratic planning institutions, and lead to less accountability, not more.

As far as I can tell, Bill 23 is the victory of the Development Lobby over citizen's rights.