BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to 'Ford to Crombie, mayors criticizing housing law: 'Get on board' and 'stop whining',' published Dec. 7.
*************************
This was the response by Premier Doug Ford to Bonnie Crombie after she reacted to the impact that Bill 23 would have on the city of Mississauga and its residents. Bill 23 will reduce or eliminate development charges that help to offset the cost of growth in municipalities all across Ontario.
Ford defended his position that by eliminating development charges would allow developers to then reduce the price of new homes and pass that savings to potential buyers. Of course there is nothing in Bill 23 to ensure that this will really happen. What the bill will do is to encourage developers to build more homes faster.
In Barrie, the development charges are used to pay for new roads and sewers, parks and community centres. With a current population of 159,000, the city is mandated to grow to 210,000 by 2031. That's an increase of 51,000 residents.
Meanwhile, the average household size in Barrie is 2.7 persons. Based on that statistic, over 18,000 housing units will have to be built to accommodate this growth. Many of these homes will be condos and apartments.
The current development fee is $42,281 for a two-bedroom apartment and $29,689 for a one-bedroom unit. With single and semi-detached homes, the present fee is $75,502 per unit. Even with these fees, they don't pay for all of Barrie's growth.
Now imagine what our annual property taxes will be when Bill 23 becomes a reality. Barrie taxpayers will face huge increases in property taxes along with reductions in services provided. Mayor Crombie said her only option would be to to raise property taxes by 10 per cent every year for a decade.
Doug Ford responded with, "I know we have a few mayors that don't want to play in the sandbox." Hopefully, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall and his council don't climb into that sandbox.
Disingenuous is an adjective meaning deceitful, underhanded and double-dealing.
Terry Paddison
Barrie
*************************
