Ontario mayors speak out against proposal to give more power over housing to province
CBC
Ontario mayors are raising concerns about a new report from a Ford government task force that recommends taking some control over housing policy away from municipalities and giving it to the province.
Among other things, the report from the Housing Affordability Task Force, released early Tuesday morning, is calling for "binding provincial action" to allow buildings up to four storeys tall, and up to four units, on a residential lot. It's also calling for less public consultation.
Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters Tuesday he's had "extensive discussions" with Premier Doug Ford and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark.
"I have emphasized to them that it is local officials ... who know best, not the provincial government," Tory said.
The task force recommendations aim to have 1.5 million homes built in the next 10 years across Ontario at a time when an estimated 70 per cent of land zoned for housing in Toronto is restricted to single-detached or semi-detached homes. That's as the cost of buying a home has nearly tripled in the area over the past 10 years.
"I am truly disappointed in the housing task force report," said Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas in a statement.
"Apparently, the solution to the housing affordability crisis is to limit public input and allow developers to build whatever they want, wherever they want. Profit driven public planning won't solve the affordability crisis in our communities."
The report specifies that affordable housing was not part of the task force's mandate and that cabinet would deal with that issue separately.
A statement released Tuesday by the organization Ontario Big City Mayors, of which Tory is a member, also expressed concerns.
"Unilateral actions, absent municipal input, may have unintended consequences that slow down development and reduce the community support needed to continue to sustainably add housing," the statement reads.
"While overcoming NIMBYism is essential to success, so is respect for local decision-making and the democratic process."
The acronym NIMBY stands for "Not In My Back Yard" and describes a belief among some homeowners in single-family neighbourhoods that building denser communities and more affordable housing is great in theory, but not close to where they live.
The task force report raises concerns with NIMBYism, which it says some have now re-termed BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything).
"My neighbour can tear down what was there to build a monster home, but I'm not allowed to add a basement suite to my home," the report quotes one homeowner as saying.
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.