Attention Summer Students! Now hiring students for summer 2024. Find your summer job here.
The provincial government is looking to make it easier for municipalities to expand their borders.
The measure is contained in proposed legislation to increase the housing stock.
Housing Minister Steve Clark also wants to give municipalities the flexibility to permit housing on lands now designated farmland or commercial.
“We believe all of our municipal partners need to look at all of the measures that they have at their disposal, both inside their urban boundary and outside as well. So we look forward to the consultation. We look forward to all of our municipal stakeholders’ comments and other stakeholders, but a place to grow should be all of Ontario,” says Clark.
The proposal is drawing criticism from the opposition.
NDP Housing critic Jessica Bell says the move puts a threat on farmland.
“This is concerning because farmland and farming are one of Ontario’s most productive and important sectors, and it is not going to thrive if the Conservatives make it easier for developers to pave over farmland. This is class one, world-class farmland, and we need to be doing everything we can to protect it,” says Bell.
Bell claims the housing minister has already approved development on 30,000 ha. of farmland.
She calls it unsustainable and incredibly expensive for municipalities to service.
“It’s much easier to provide electricity, sewerage, and roads for homes that are in existing neighbourhoods that are already built for development than it is to expand infrastructure into farmland. So it doesn’t even make sense on an economic front,” says Bell.
The government is now going out for consultation for the next sixty days.