The Opinion piece below was prepared by Kevin Eby for the Ontario Professional Planners Institute back in December 2022.
Note: Minor changes were subsequently made to Bill 23 negating the issue raised in the last bullet in the Opinion piece.
What is Bill 23 Really About?
By Kevin Eby
It is completely unrealistic to assume the affordable housing crisis we face today will be solved by the private sector. That is not the business they are in. Ultimately, the affordable housing crisis will only be resolved through partnerships between the Federal government, the Province, municipalities, non profits, co-operatives, charitable organizations and other agencies. The private sector will play a supporting role in this process, but simply providing them with more urban designated land in the vain hope that somehow this will result in more and cheaper homes being built is not a realistic solution.
The Province's Housing Affordability Task Force stated: "a shortage of land isn't the cause of the problem" yet many of the solutions, including the subsequent announcement that lands are proposed to be removed from the Greenbelt, focus on increasing the supply of land.
This is perplexing until one realizes that the major focus of Bill 23 is not actually about building more homes to address the housing affordability issues facing Ontario today. If the Province was serious about doing that it would instead be establishing collaborative processes with a broad range of partners to address the issue. They aren't doing that.
They didn't even consult with municipalities, stakeholders, or agencies before proposing massive changes to municipal planning, financing, and governance in Ontario. When it comes to the issue of whether more land is needed, they even ignored their own Housing Affordability Task Force.
Why? Because housing affordability appears simply to be the cover being used to resolve long-standing grudges the development and homebuilding industries have with municipalities, Conservation Authorities, and the public. What appears very complex is actually pretty simple:
• The Growth Plan promotes intensification over sprawl – the proposed changes will eliminate the Growth Plan.
• Regional official plans and regional planning have proven effective at ensuring only the amount of land actually needed to accommodate forecasted growth is brought into urban areas – Bill 23 eliminates regional official plans and regional planning.
• Development Charges were introduced to make sure growth pays for itself and not put the cost of growth onto the shoulders of taxpayers – Bill 23 transfers some growth-related costs to taxpayers.
• Provincially significant wetlands (PSWs) increased costs to developers who had to make sure these important ecological features were protected to help us avoid catastrophic floods and maintain important wildlife habitat – the proposed changes to the evaluation criteria for PSWs eliminate much of this problem for developers.
• Public input and associated alterations to proposed developments often cut into developer profits – Bill 23 eliminates public meetings for plans of subdivision and third-party appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
• Design requirements and green standards require developers to put more care into how they build so as to create more liveable neighbourhoods and mitigate climate change – Bill 23 prohibits implementation of these practices.
These changes appear to have been proposed without any consultation with affected parties other than the development and homebuilding industries. None of these changes appear to be about building more homes. They are about profits. If the development and homebuilding industries had wanted to build more homes here in the Region of Waterloo and elsewhere in Ontario, they could have. There were plenty of approved lots in greenfield areas and pre-zoned intensification parcels available. Instead, they ignored the part of the market that is not profitable enough for them and in some cases withheld lots from the market to meet longer-term business plans.
Kevin Eby, RPP, PLE
Waterloo, Ontario
