By Cecilia Nasmith

Though Bill 109 – the More Homes for Everyone Act 2022 – has already received royal assent, Cobourg council wants to express its concerns.

These were discussed at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting, as Director of Planning and Development Anne Taylor-Scott highlighted the aspects of Bill 109 that troubled her.

The aim of this bill is to increase the supply of housing, the shortage of which is believed to be a prime cause of the skyrocketing real-estate costs that are making home ownership impossible. But Taylor-Scott pointed out that nothing in the bill addresses affordable or subsidized housing – just market-value housing stock.

Taylor-Scott was sharing her understanding of the legislation just prior to an important information session that she hoped would answer some questions. But she did highlight three areas she believed would be of special concern to the municipality.

One of the most troubling is the provision to refund fees for applications not approved within a 120-day time frame – though she was not sure at that time when the clock might actually begin running on that 120 days. But she did describe that as “a very quick turn-around.”

A time frame longer than 120 days is quite common, she said, and that is a result of many factors besides simple staff delay. The unapproved projects currently on Cobourg's municipal books that would qualify for this refund would result in a 25% loss in revenue.

Taylor-Scott said she had not yet received all the information on the other two provisions of concern – a new definition of what constitutes completion of a site-plan application and new limitations on what conditions could be required for subdivision approval.

Other provisions Taylor-Scott wants more information on included the new Centre of Realty Excellence that was cited in the province's stepping in to pause the Wesleyville sale to Port Hope within hours of the transaction's closing.

“The province is establishing a Centre of Realty Excellence to better use 10,000 acres of underused government-owned real estate to meet the most pressing needs,” she said – nothing that affordable housing might qualify as a pressing need.

She is less hopeful about the newly established Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator, as it fundamentally enshrines the Minister's Zoning Orders that are being issued so frequently of late. A Minister's Zoning Order – under the guise of cutting red tape and speeding up development – permits a municipality to bypass environmental protections and other zoning criteria in favour of simply requesting a rezoning from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

MZOs are a source of concern for Deputy Mayor Suzanne Seguin as well, though she is unaware of any that have been requested from Cobourg.

She also is uneasy at the prospect of hurrying an application through the process at the expense of due diligence for fear of cost to the municipality in the form of a refund.

“That is not the key criteria, I understand that, but this feels heavy-handed to me,” Seguin complained.

Councillor Nicole Beatty noted that planning fees are often set on a cost-recovery basis, so any refund would put taxpayers on the hook.

“We are not alone in this – there are 444 municipalities in the Province of Ontario, and they are all in the same boat we are,” Mayor John Henderson said.

“We are all suffering from what could be coming forward with these major changes in the Land Use Planning Act and the other related acts.”

Council passed Beatty's motion noting the town's objection to the three issues spotlighted by Taylor-Scott, even though the province's period for comment has passed.

The motion will be sent to Premier Doug Ford, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.