A controversial housing bill that was recently passed in Ontario will do little to create more affordable housing in Chatham-Kent, according to a local councillor.
Bill 23, also known as the “More Homes Built Faster Act,” overrides some development fees and municipal zoning laws with the goal of creating more housing in the province. The bill was given Royal Assent on Monday.
CK Councillor Trevor Thompson, who also serves as chair of the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority (LTVCA) board of directors, said he has serious concerns over how the new bill will impact the municipality.
“I don’t see this helping to build any more homes over the next 10 years in our area,” he said. “It will allow people to build homes where perhaps they shouldn’t.”
The LTVCA, along with other conservation authorities across the province, has warned that less oversight of proposed developments on conservation lands could result in more flooding and erosion.
Bill 23 will also prevent municipalities from entering into agreements with conservation authorities to review planning applications, and it will remove “conservation of lands” and “pollution” as considerations in permit decisions.
“A lot of the regulations that remain move over to the municipality and it’s now their job to enforce those regulations,” said Thompson.
However, Thompson noted that municipal staff are not trained and do not have the expertise to deal with conservation rules and regulations.
“The municipality is either going to have to hire staff to do it, or they’re going to have to contract that out. So I could see, to be quite blunt, someone working at the LTVCA could potentially end up working for the municipality in the near future, at a much higher rate [of pay].”
According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the legislation could also result in a $5 billion shortfall for communities province-wide and may not actually lead to more housing being built in the long term.
Chatham-Kent will feel that shortfall over time due to the loss in developer fees, Thompson said, but further impacts from Bill 23 remain to be seen.
“I don’t know how it’s going to play out but there still are very, very big concerns, and I don’t think we’ll begin to feel those until we’re three, four, five years down the road,” he said. “We’re going to have to wait and see how this plays out locally.”
