On October 25, 2026,…

On October 25, 2026, Regional Council for The Regional Municipality of Waterloo approved report COR-CFN-23-033 with the following recommendation:

That the Regional Municipality of Waterloo endorse and submit to the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing the comments on the Proposed Regulatory Matters
Pertaining to the Development Charges Act as set out in report COR-CFN-23-033 dated
October 25, 2023.

There are 3 main concerns identified in the report with the proposed changes through Bill 134 are:

1. There are no provisions regarding eligibility or income limits for households to
occupy these units to ensure that the units are offered to households in financial
need for these units.
2. “Affordability” is not further defined by unit size (number of bedrooms in a unit) or
dwelling type, so the definition will likely favour studio and one-bedroom units
over larger family-oriented housing.
3. The PPS and ROP definitions are based on the “regional market area”, while the
proposed definitions use data for the “municipality”. This will likely result in
different definitions of “affordability” by area municipality and may vary the
degree of success the proposed changes have in creating affordable housing by
the private sector by municipality.

Furthermore, what remains unclear is how “attainable housing”, which is also proposed to be exempt
from development charges, is to be further defined by way of criteria that are to be
prescribed by regulation.