Brampton commits to housing pledge amid calls for funding to meet Provincial targets
Published March 8, 2023 at 10:33 am
The City of Brampton is calling on the Province and Ottawa to help with infrastructure funding to meet an “unprecedented” target of more than 100,000 new units in the city over the next decade.
Last week, the City officially signed on to the Municipal Housing Pledge under Ontario’s new Bill 23. Known as the More Homes Built Faster Act, the bill sets housing construction goals for municipalities across Ontario to build 1.5 million new homes within 10 years, including 113,000 new households in Brampton.
But the City said actually meeting the pledge will take significant funding from other levels of government to cover infrastructure costs and lost revenue.
“I believe we can hit the provincial target, but we’re going to need funding for servicing,” Brampton Mayor Brown said at a press conference on Tuesday (March 8), adding that he wants to see the Province and the Feds commit dollars to healthcare and transit projects in new communities built under the bill.
Brown said he believes the bill could help make homeownership a reality for more residents and, with Provincial help, the City can meet the target and still “protect quality of life” in Brampton.
All municipalities are required to sign the Municipal Housing Pledge by March 22.
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City staff have said the controversial plan could cost Brampton up to $8 billion, while a report from the Region of Peel said the bill could actually reduce the amount of affordable housing stock set to be built over the next 10 years, suggesting the targets will only benefit higher-income buyers.
A report in November said changes could cost the City some $440 million in development charges alone, as well as some $2 billion in additional infrastructure like roads, water, schools and childcare to support development growth.
The legislation also halves the land developers will have to keep available for parks, and staff identified a potential loss between $700 million to $1.05 billion in parkland revenue.
Staff have called the housing target for Brampton “exceedingly aggressive,” and said the bill’s financial hurdles amount to an 80 per cent tax increase.
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