Tag: affordable housing

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Cottage Life

Pending amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act would allow developers to build on floodplains without permits

Photo by Shutterstock/Wang Sing

On November 28, the Ontario government passed Bill 23 dubbed the More Homes Built Faster Act, a far-reaching piece of legislation that eliminates development fees and downloads a lot of the permitting responsibilities to the municipalities. The objective of the bill is to speed up the development planning process and create affordable housing.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has committed to building 1.5 million new homes in the next 10 years.

In hand with Bill 23, the Ford government is also looking to open sections of Ontario’s Greenbelt for development—with some of those sections located in wetlands and floodplains.

During an interview with the Canadian Press, Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, criticized the plan, saying that the federal government would not provide disaster compensation to developments built in floodplains.

Premier Ford responded to Guilbeault’s statement during a press conference in Clarington, Ont. on Dec. 2. by putting the onus on the developers.

“It’s the responsibility of any builder, no matter where we build, to make sure that they protect any floodplains,” the premier said.

Rhonda Bateman, the chief administrative officer for the Lower Trent Conservation Authority, confirms that as of right now, this is true. “Currently, everything is status quo as far as our permitting goes,” she says, meaning Ontario’s conservation authorities still have jurisdiction over natural hazards, such as floodplains, and have the power to prevent developers from building near these areas by denying them permits.

But that could change. The provincial government added two amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act, a set of regulations Ontario’s conservation authorities use to “maintain the vitality of our watersheds and protect people’s lives and properties from natural hazards such as flooding and erosion.”

The two amendments have yet to be enacted, requiring a proclamation from the Lieutenant Governor. But if they were enacted, Bateman says that developers would not need a permit from their conservation authority to build on a hazardous area, such as a floodplain or wetland.

“If [developers] don’t require a permit from us, it will end up causing a lot of extra responsibility and liability for development on the municipality,” she says, “and they count on us for expertise to be able to identify all of those hazards and how to mitigate them or prevent them from happening.”

Bill 23 has already stripped conservation authorities of the ability to partner with municipalities to review and comment on development applications. The Ford government has reasoned that by removing stakeholders from the planning process, more development will happen faster. But many municipalities have said that without the expertise of conservation authorities, the planning process could take longer to properly assess an application.

It’s also unclear who would be liable if a developer built in a floodplain and the development flooded. “I think lawyers are going to be competing over the answer to that,” Bateman says. “The municipalities will have limited mechanisms to ensure that outside compliance can be reached because we’re the compliance in the permitting process.”

The dangers associated with building in a natural hazard are obvious, Bateman says. Homes built on a wetland could see extensive property damage from flooded basements. “The other part of the wetland issue is that wetlands are flood attenuation. If they’re paved over or built over, then the water that’s normally stored in there has to go somewhere, and it could cause surface flooding.”

Building in a floodplain is even worse. “People’s homes can get washed away. Or people could die,” Bateman says.

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Cottage Life

‘It won’t be immediate, but it is coming’: Municipalities say property taxes to increase as a result of Bill 23

Photo by Alexander Gold/Shutterstock

On Monday, the Ontario government passed the controversial Bill 23. The bill is intended to spur development and address the province’s need for affordable housing. But critics are concerned that it will instead raise property taxes and threaten protected conservation areas.

The bill limits input from citizens and conservation authorities in the approval process for new housing and removes certain environmental protections, opening areas such as Ontario’s Greenbelt to development.

Bill 23 is tied to Premier Doug Ford’s commitment to building 1.5 million new homes by 2031. Although, high inflation and interest rates are already curbing that number, with experts predicting that fewer than 80,000 homes a year will be built over the next several years. While the bill is aimed at Ontario’s urban centres, particularly the Golden Horseshoe, many cottage country communities are concerned about its far-reaching effects.

“I think it is short sighted because the philosophy for decades has been that growth should pay for itself,” says John Boyko, a Selwyn Township councillor in Peterborough County.

Previously, when a company was building a development, it would have to pay additional fees to the municipality. Those fees would be used to build infrastructure that supported the new development, such as roads and sewer systems. But under Bill 23, the costs of that infrastructure now fall on the municipality rather than the developer.

The Association of Municipalities Ontario found that by transferring costs from developers to municipalities, the bill would reduce the municipal resources available to service new developments by more than $5.1 billion over the next 9 years.

“Once these areas are developed, there will not be enough money in the municipal coffers to pay for the enhancement and development of those services and the maintenance of the infrastructure,” Boyko says. “Therefore, taxes across the rest of the municipality will have to go up. I don’t know whether premier Ford realizes it or not, but what he’s done with Bill 23 is cause an enormous tax increase on the taxpayers of the province of Ontario. It won’t be immediate, but it is coming.”

Murray Fearrey, the mayor of Dysart et al in Haliburton County, says that this is not the time to dump a property-tax increase on citizens. “We need some stability here.”

Fearrey points out that property taxes have already seen a significant spike over the last several years as municipalities implemented necessary infrastructure and funding to combat COVID.

“It seems to me that the federal government is trying to run the province and the province is trying to run the counties and municipalities,” he says. “Everyone’s stepping down, and we’re at the bottom rung in the ladder.”

While both Fearrey and Boyko agree that further development is necessary, they’re clear that lack of public input, increased taxes, and expansion into environmentally sensitive areas, especially in cottage country where the natural landscape is intrinsically tied to the area’s appeal, is problematic.

“One of the existential questions of our generation is how we are going to deal with the mitigation of climate change,” Boyko says. “What Bill 23 has done is decrease the ability of municipalities and conservation authorities to determine what is safest and best for the environment with respect to development.”

The Municipality of Kawartha Lakes voiced similar environmental concerns in a recent council meeting. The area is home to Oak Ridges Moraine, an environmentally sensitive landform that, as part of Ontario’s Greenbelt, is being opened to development under Bill 23.

“We will not be allowed to reach out to Kawartha Conservation or other conservation authorities to comment on certain policies. We will have to have other reporting agencies do that for us. Bill 23 will be awful for conservation authorities across Ontario as they have power taken away from them for the second time in the last two years,” councillor Pat Warren said during the meeting.

“The bill asks conservation authorities to open up some of their land for development. It will aid the development community and not boost housing for those who really need it,” she continued. The Kawartha Lakes council resolved to oppose Bill 23 and support the Association of Municipalities Ontario in lobbying the government to rethink the bill.

However, Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, says its unlikely the bill will be reigned in. “The Ford government feels confident they can forge ahead with the bill. It’s got a solid majority government, it recently won an election, and there isn’t another election on the horizon for years. So, they don’t feel threatened politically.”

Wiseman adds that the bill is partially a deflection. The Ontario government needs to build more houses, but as a conservative government, it doesn’t want to be seen raising taxes, so it downloads that responsibility on municipalities.

“Mike Harris did this one sterling example here in Toronto when all of a sudden, he yanked whatever provincial support there was for the TTC. Meaning that the TTC was the only subway service in North America that didn’t get any support from beyond the municipal level,” Wiseman says, equating it to the way the Ford government is transferring development fees to the municipalities.

Wiseman also points out the contradiction of Bill 23. During Ford’s bid for re-election, he promised not to touch the Greenbelt. “And now, he’s expanding into it. He’s saying, well, we’re just expanding a little and we’re going to add more Greenbelt,” Wiseman says.

“The problem isn’t a shortage of land. From what I can make out, the problem is how you use the land.”

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Cottage Life

These eastern Ontario towns will pay to ‘date’ you for a year

Photo Courtesy of The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry/Facebook

It may not be the date you envisioned, but these eastern Ontario towns are ready to commit long term.

The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry (SDG) launched an unorthodox marketing campaign at the beginning of August. Titled “Date My County”, SDG is offering to pay one lucky applicant to live in the area for 12 consecutive months. Think Tinder but for communities.

“It was initiated by our economic development office as a venue to hopefully attract new residents,” says Tara Kirkpatrick, SDG’s manager of economic development. “We recognize that population growth is something that most areas of the province are challenged with right now, and that we need to compete for some of our labour.”

One of Kirkpatrick’s teammates pitched the idea, but county staff weren’t sure council members would be willing to spend tax dollars on the campaign. “It’s not every day that politicians will be open to something truly creative and kind of out of the box,” she says. “But they saw the bigger picture, and they were excited by it.”

The campaign offers to pay one lucky winner $1,500 a month to live in the SDG area starting this fall through to January 2024. The money can go towards buying a house or renting—it’s up to the winner to sort out their accommodations. The winner will also act as a brand ambassador for SDG, posting twice monthly blogs, vlogs, or photo collages to the county’s website and social media.

Through the campaign, Kirkpatrick says SDG hopes to strengthen its brand and get some much-needed exposure. “We all love Muskoka, and we love Prince Edward County, but I think that a lot of the other areas of the province get missed because of the shine that falls on others,” she says. “People forget that they’re driving by beautiful beaches on the way to get into Prince Edward County.”

Cottage prices remain high despite rising interest rates: RE/MAX

Situated an hour drive from both Ottawa and Montreal, the county is bordered by Quebec and Vermont with the St. Lawrence River running along its southern end. “We’re rural Ontario. Agriculture is our main backbone,” Kirkpatrick says, “but you can get into the city quickly. You can go and watch a hockey game in Montreal, and make it to work the next day, or you can go and meet friends for drinks in Ottawa.”

Kirkpatrick adds that the area also has some of the lowest housing costs in Canada. The average price of a house in SDG is $418,748, over $200,000 cheaper than Canada’s average price ($665,849). Plus the county boasts countless hiking and cross country ski trails, and beaches along the St. Lawrence River.

To date, the campaign has seen 100 applicants, mostly from the Montreal and Greater Toronto Areas, but some as far away as Iraq, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Kirkpatrick notes that to be eligible for the campaign an applicant must be 18 years or older, a Canadian citizen, and they can’t already live in the SDG area.

The applicants have a mix of backgrounds, Kirkpatrick says, ranging from young professionals looking to escape the city, retirees who grew up in the area and want to move back, to new Canadians who want to live somewhere more affordable.

“Date” applicants aren’t required to work in the area, but for those in search of a career change, SDG offers a long list of work opportunities. The 2022 Cornwall and Area Job Fair saw more than 500 jobs posted. “We have jobs to fill,” Kirkpatrick says. “It’s everything from judges and lawyers to factory workers and mechanics.”

The committee in charge of selecting the winning applicant is made up of three county councillors and two lay appointees. The committee is well versed in sifting through applicants, as it handles SDG’s tourism grants and a few business grants.

Committee members aren’t looking for any specific work or life experience in a candidate. The main criteria is someone who’s passionate about the area, excited to explore, fits well with the community, and can act as an effective brand ambassador.

Interested individuals can submit their applications at datemycounty.ca. The deadline to apply is 12 p.m. on November 1, 2022.

The only downside? Kirkpatrick says,“It’s going to be so hard to choose.”

 

RBC forecasts historic real estate market correction, including cottages

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Cottage Life

How the federal government’s affordable housing strategies will affect buyers and sellers

Photo by Shutterstock/Colin Temple

On April 7, the federal government released its 2022 budget, which included strategies designed to tackle Canada’s housing crisis, including the lack of affordable housing. Low inventory combined with high demand has driven up housing prices across the country, says a Royal LePage report. In the first quarter of 2022, the price of a single-family home in Canada increased by 25.1 per cent to $856,900.

The cottage market has seen similar effects. In 2021, the national aggregate price of a single-family waterfront home jumped 21.5 per cent to $976,000, according to a Royal LePage report.

“Young people cannot imagine being able to afford the house they grew up in,” reads the 2022 budget. “Foreign investors and speculators are buying up homes that should be for Canadians to own. Rents in our major cities continue to climb, pushing people further and further away from where they work.”

To fill the housing demand, Finance Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimate that the country will need to build 3.5 million new homes by 2031. To achieve this goal, the federal government has committed $72 billion in financial support over the next six years towards its affordable housing plan.

The plan’s strategies range from a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights to tax credits for first-time home buyers. But not everyone’s convinced these strategies will accomplish the federal government’s goal of making housing more affordable.

“[The plan] will not lower housing prices,” says Frank Clayton, a professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development, in an email. “The best they can do is to slow down price growth over a longer term.”

Clayton does, however, say that he thinks the budget’s Housing Accelerator Fund could be effective. The fund commits $4 billion over the next five years to support the housing development needs of municipalities. How municipalities use the money is flexible, but the goal of the fund is to create 100,000 new housing units over the next five years.

The budget includes a long list of other strategies. To get a better understanding of how the government’s plan will affect buyers and sellers, here’s a breakdown of the key strategies:

A tax-free first home savings account

The budget will introduce a tax-free savings account to help Canadians with the down payment on their first home and ultimately create a more affordable housing strategy. The account will function similar to an RRSP with tax-deductible contributions, and, similar to a TFSA, withdrawals will be non-taxable.

Prospective first-time home buyers will be able to save up to $40,000, with an $8,000 maximum annual deposit. The federal government says it plans to launch the Tax-Free First Home Savings Account in 2023.

Doubling the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit

On top of the tax-free savings account, the federal government has doubled the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit to $10,000 in an effort to assist with the significant closing costs associated with buying a home. The tax credit applies to homes bought on or after January 1, 2022.

Creating a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights

The federal government has pledged to create a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights to eliminate real estate practices it feels are driving up prices. This includes cottage real estate, not just homes. The two practices the government is targeting are buyers having to forgo property inspections to make their offers more desirable and blind bidding.

The federal government says it will work with provinces and territories to make home inspections a legal right while phasing out blind bidding altogether. Blind bidding is the default practice real estate agents use across Canada when they engage in a multi-offer scenario. It requires buyers to bid for a property without knowing the size of competing offers. In certain circumstances, it can cause a buyer to significantly overbid, inflating the property’s selling price.

But Katie Steinfeld, broker of record for real estate agency On The Block, says that eliminating blind bidding might actually drive up real estate prices. “A lot of buyers, their argument is when they’re in a blind bidding situation, they don’t want to go up any higher because they don’t know what the next highest offer is. They don’t want to overpay,” she says. “But if they know what they need to pay in order to get the home, that can push them up even higher.”

Steinfeld sides with professor Frank Clayton, saying that many of the federal government’s housing policies don’t speak to one another. If Canada wants to see affordable housing, it needs a lot more new inventory than what was proposed in the 2022 budget, she says, especially since the government has opened up its immigration policy and is planning to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants each year.

A two-year ban on foreign investment in Canadian housing

While foreign investment doesn’t play a major role in cottage country, the federal government has argued that it is pricing Canadians out of homes in urban centres, such as Vancouver and Toronto. That’s why the 2022 budget proposes a regulation that would prohibit all foreign commercial enterprises and non-permanent residents from buying residential property for two years. It has yet to be announced when this regulation would go into effect.

Steinfeld, however, argues that the federal government is aiming its restrictions at the wrong group. According to the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, 2.2 per cent of residential properties in Ontario were owned by non-residents in 2020, and 3.1 per cent in B.C. Whereas multiple-property owning Canadians made up 31 per cent of Ontario’s residential real estate market in 2020 and 29 per cent in B.C., with many of the properties used as rentals.

“That is much more significant than the foreign investment piece,” Steinfeld says. “I think that if they would have created policies to require increased down payment from [multiple-property owning Canadians], perhaps that might have had more of an impact versus just banning foreign buyers altogether.”

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Cottage Life

U-Haul names North Bay Canada’s top growth city for second consecutive year

Photo by Lester Balajadia/Shutterstock

Considering a move? North Bay may be your best bet. For the second year in a row, the city of 51,000 nabbed Canada’s top spot for population growth on rental company U-Haul’s Growth Index report.

The report looks at how many U-Haul trucks entered a city or province in a calendar year and compares it to how many left, taking the net gain. It then lists the top 25 cities in Canada and ranks each province in terms of population growth. This year’s report compiled data from over 2 million one-way U-Haul truck transactions.

According to the report, people moving to North Bay rose by 40 per cent compared to last year, while departures from the city also rose, sitting at 27 per cent. Overall, the report states that U-Haul customers accounted for 59.2 per cent of North Bay’s incoming traffic in 2021.

Two other Ontario cities followed closely behind North Bay, Belleville and Greater Sudbury. “At the start of the pandemic, we saw a mass exodus from Ontario to other provinces, particularly the Maritimes,” said Jake Spelic, U-Haul area district vice president of Eastern Canada, in the report. “People were in search of cheaper housing as they worked from home. As time has passed and things are shifting closer to normal, we are starting to see that trend reverse. Ontario is still the economic centre of Canada and offers a high quality of living, thousands of job opportunities, and attractive salaries.”

North Bay Mayor Al McDonald attributes his city’s population growth to a number of factors. “I think the secret’s out,” he said. “We started a ‘Move Up’ campaign targeting the GTA about three years ago, and I think people are starting to recognize that the city of North Bay is only a three-hour drive to Toronto. Plus, they’re starting to discover all the amenities and lifestyle that we offer, including being named one of the top 20 places in Canada to invest, as well as factors like our beaches, trails, arts and culture, restaurants, breweries, affordable housing, and space.”

Since McDonald was elected mayor in 2010, he’s prioritized economic development and population growth, balancing these commitments with maintaining the city’s outdoor spaces. The result has been a growth in job opportunities and a community with an abundance of recreational activities.

Plus, McDonald added, North Bay has one of the strongest internet connections in the country. “Last year, we were considered as having the fastest mobile network in Canada. Part of it is being driven because we have NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) here. So, our internet infrastructure is extremely strong.”

Beyond listing Canada’s top 25 growth cities, the U-Haul report also looked at migration trends among provinces. In 2021, Alberta took the top spot with U-Haul customers accounting for 50.8 per cent of Alberta’s traffic inflow. Compared to last year, the province saw a 33 per cent increase in one-way U-Haul arrivals and a 29 per cent increase in departures.

“There are initiatives in Alberta that are creating more job opportunities and attracting residents,” said Naga Chennamsetty, U-Haul area district vice president of Western Canada, in the report. “In the last year, we have seen a lot of movement into Alberta. More communities are developing in and around major cities. Not only that, but the Canadian Rockies are so accessible to residents here, and they offer a variety of recreational activities.”

Calgary ranked as Alberta’s top migration city, sitting fifth on the list. Other Alberta cities to make the top 25 included Red Deer-Lacombe (8), Medicine Hat-Redcliff (15), and Airdrie (24).

Alberta was followed by British Columbia and Ontario, respectively.