I am a Registered…

I am a Registered Professional Planner and I have a number of concerns with the proposed legislation. Overall, I do not believe this will create housing affordability, or significantly impact supply. Here's why: Reducing fees on development does not make housing cheaper, it increases the amount of money a developer is able to pay for land. As land prices go up, so will the price for consumers.

Our development charge system is based on the principle that growth should pay for itself. If you are discounting development charges that are based on the actual cost of providing infrastructure to support new growth, then either municipalities will not be able to build that infrastructure, and there will be no new housing, or existing property owners will have to pay for it through property tax.

I agree with the intent of streamlining approvals, but I don't think removing Upper Tier municipalities and Conservation Authorities from the development review process is the way to do it. Upper Tier municipalities have a fundamental growth management role, as well as infrastructure planning. CAs do more than just review flooding and erosion hazards, they have expertise in ecology and climate change and safeguard our natural heritage system. Especially as we are experiencing more frequent extreme weather and other impacts of climate change, now is not the time to eliminate or severely limit CAs.

I could say much more, but I will finish with this. Housing construction is not going to happen any more quickly by consolidating all review powers either with municipalities or the Province, especially if municipalities have reduced revenue and increased responsibilities. The consulting world is barely keeping up with the pace of development today, and we have an acute shortage of skilled trades to actually do the work.

Please extend the commenting period so the planning and development industry as well as the public can have more time to review. This legislation will be incredibly damaging to our quality of life in Ontario.

Thank you