By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—Last week, the Provincial government introduced their More Homes Built Faster Act, a sweeping program designed to tackle the housing crisis in Ontario by building 1.5 million homes in just 10 years.
Minister of Municipal Housing and Affairs Steve Clark referred to the act as “creating a strong foundation.… Our government is following through on our commitment to Ontarians by cutting delays and red tape to get more homes built faster.”
Here in Haldimand, where development concerns were a driving factor in both the provincial and municipal election, the new act is bound to turn some heads. A key part of the act is the new Attainable Housing Program, which seeks to “leverage provincial authorities, surplus, or underutilized lands, and commercial innovation and partnerships to rapidly build attainable homes in mixed-income communities that are accessible to all.”
The act also proposes a streamlined set of regulations for all Conservation Authorities in the province, a streamlined municipal process that would make public meetings for subdivision draft plans optional, and more. To view the entire act, visit ontario.ca/page/more-homes-built-faster.
While Haldimand County staff are still reviewing the act and the impacts it will have on the municipal planning and development processes, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady sat down with The Press to share her concerns.
“I’ve been very concerned with this focus on housing in general,” said Brady. “Why would we bring people to a province where we have a healthcare crisis, (where) we have an education crisis.… It’s not fair to them to bring them to a province that has chaos in vital sectors.”
Brady said that while listening to the recent Throne speech in Queen’s Park, which delved into the healthcare and housing issues facing Ontario, she was waiting for agriculture and food to be mentioned.
“You’re talking about bringing more people to Ontario, who want to make Ontario home, that’s great, but if we don’t have any land to grow our food it all becomes a moot point. As soon as we have to rely on another country for our food, life quickly becomes unaffordable for all of us.”
She called the loss of over 300 acres of farmland a day in the province “unsustainable,” adding that the government should focus on building in places where infrastructure already exists. “We’re going to have to build up instead of out. Not everybody is going to have the ability to own the lot with the beautiful house on it and the white picket fence. I think we’re going to have to make some concessions.”
Here in Haldimand, Brady says that infrastructural needs are being ignored in the name of rapid growth.
“It took me three and a half hours to get from Delhi to Queen’s Park. There were no accidents, it was just the number of vehicles on the road,” she said. “What is the plan to update our roadways to accommodate those people? What is our plan to update public transit?”
Brady said she understood some of the driving motivations behind the act, how in “some cases … the wheels move very slowly and it’s hard to get things done,” which can make developments “inefficient.”
While the Attainable Housing program could accelerate proposed developments, Brady said, “This legislation is to ensure as much housing and housing units are put up as possible. I think it will exacerbate some things.”
Brady raised concerns that affordability, seniors looking to downsize, and rental situations may not have been fully considered: “This is a situation where we’re not going to understand if it worked, or it didn’t, until it’s too late.”
Brady said development was the issue she heard most about during the recent county fair season, calling it the biggest thing on people’s minds aside from healthcare.
“It’s not that they’re anti-development, I’m not anti-development,” said Brady. “If we’re going to develop, it has to be moderate, and it has to be responsible. I don’t see responsible development in many cases…. We don’t want to be a little city. That’s what people tell me.”
