It is hard to understand how…

It is hard to understand how the provincial government can be so sympathetic to development charges when they currently cover somewhere between 50% and 80% of development costs. Who pays the remainder? TAXPAYERS, that’s who!

Yet, this single ‘level’ of taxpayers is supporting FOUR levels of government (federal, provincial or territorial, regional or district, and municipal) as well as all their governmental, quasi-governmental, and crown agencies. None of these agencies operate on a revenue neutral basis, so taxpayers get hit again and again for government excesses, not to mention the costs of political cronyism. For some reason, all four levels of government are in the development game, and this might be attributed to all the campaign donations that pour into party coffers from domestic and international corporations. It should be sufficient for governments to establish regulations and a regulatory framework within which developers can operate, then leave them to the business of raising their funds through private investors, who will assess the merits and value of their proposed projects. If our too many politicians actually believed in the ‘magic of the marketplace’, they will stop handing out favours to private business.

Developers already get a VERY GOOD deal and plenty of attention from politicians at all levels of government. Isn’t it time for politicians to serve citizens who are also taxpayers? Since taxes and fees for average taxpayers never go down, why should wealthy developers get a break?

Right now, we have all levels of government besotted with the idea that if we just pave MORE land and cram in MORE units of housing or some form of industry, including those massive ubiquitous warehouse subdivisions, somehow we will magically use fewer resources. That isn’t happening. With a growing human population being crammed into the same area, there is simply more and more congestion and pollution from the growing human population. More WASTE. The provincial government has already explained, “"Without reducing the amount of waste generated, it is forecasted that Ontario will need to site 16 new or expanded landfills by 2050," according to the Ford government's environmental plan.

And, how does this impact taxpayers, while reducing costs for developers who already do NOT pay their own growth-related costs?

As Ontario’s landscape becomes increasingly paved and filled with more urban and suburban development, towns near Ontario’s best remaining farmlands are constantly fighting against being turned into huge garbage dumps for Toronto and other cities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Right now, people in Zorra Township are fighting against yet another new huge garbage dump (17 million tonnes) proposal for a limestone quarry, located 150 kms from Toronto along Hwy 401. Toronto and other GTA cities have already choked the life out of finite farmland nearby areas due to its growing population and associated waste, so dumps are being proposed ‘farther afield’.

According to the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA), Ontario's current available landfill capacity is expected to be exhausted in 10 to 14 years. Of the 8.1 million tonnes of waste the province landfilled in 2017, about 3.5 million tonnes was exported to the USA, mostly to Michigan, which has now closed its borders to Ontario waste.

"Ontario needs approximately 10 new large landfills in the next 10 years," said Darren Fry, a Project Director with Walker, a company working to organize the purchase of the limestone quarry in Zorra Township for a new landfill. "Approvals take approximately 10 years to conduct. Ontario needs to expand existing sites and build new landfill sites."

In March 2019, Premier Ford visited Oxford County (of which Zorra Township is a part) and pronounced, “Who are a bunch of politicians in Queen's Park to tell municipalities how to run their municipality? It is up to them, they have an option, to opt in or opt out. That is up to them, it is not necessarily up to us to overrule a municipality. That is the last thing I would want to do. I don't care if someone says they have 300 or 400 jobs, we are not going to stick something in an area that people don't want." How interesting. If the Premier is true to his words, then he will have to re-think this initiative among others.

Instead of making it cheaper for developers to make their profits on unsustainable development, it is time to pay attention to the mounting costs of ‘business as usual’ when it comes to developers. No one has EVER protested against clean water and air; in fact, most people prefer to conserve remaining farmlands and forests.

Developers should be expected to fully fund their costs of business. Up until now, they have been coddled by all levels of government.