Mayor John Tory says he will be using his new strong mayor powers granted by Queen’s Park to create a new development and growth division to move housing forward.
Tory made the announcement at city hall Wednesday morning, saying we’re in a “housing crisis” that is being felt acutely in Toronto.
“Senior staff in the city are working quickly to create this division, which will be a substantial reorganization of existing staff so that they're focused even more keenly on the process of approval and on the delivery of housing much faster,” Tory said.
The announcement comes two days after Tory pledged in his election night victory speech to move housing forward in his newly-won third term.
“I've indicated to the city staff that I want this division up and running as quickly as possible, and that I will be using the strong mayor powers to implement it,” the mayor said Wednesday. “And I expect this new model will be up and running as a result of all of that by early 2023.”
This will be the first time that Tory uses the new strong mayor powers granted to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa by the Ontario government specifically with a mind to moving housing development ahead.
Those powers give the mayor a veto to override council on matters of provincial priority, the ability to hire and fire department heads, appoint a city manager and to create new departments.
“This plan, which represents a fundamental rethink of our bureaucracy, will be a major contributor to ensuring that development applications move as efficiently as possible through our system without sacrificing necessary diligence,” Tory said.
The mayor said that while it may well be that council agrees with the move, he is moving ahead with the new department and will use the strong mayor powers as necessary in its creation because he feels the matter is urgent.
“I got a significant mandate and I explicitly campaigned on what it is that I felt had to be done with respect to housing, with respect to taxes with respect to transit,” Tory said. “And so I'll now be seeking to implement that mandate. I'm the only one that has one from people right across the city.”
Tory said he doesn’t anticipate using the new powers frequently but that he “won’t hesitate” to do so if it’s in the public interest.
He added that he looks forward to working with the new council in a collaborative way.
Responding to the news, Coun. Josh Matlow said in a tweet that it wasn’t right that councillors learned about the mayor’s intent to sue the new powers from social media.
“Regardless of one’s opinion about the announcements he’s making, it doesn’t seem right that his fellow elected members of Council are only learning about these decisions after the fact by checking Twitter,” he wrote.
Tory’s office said he will be releasing more details about the plans for the new development and growth division in the coming weeks.
TORONTO TASKED WITH BUILDING 285,000 NEW HOMES
The province also announced sweeping changes on Tuesday that will override municipal zoning laws in some situations to allow for more construction as they aim to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade.
The changes announced by the province include housing targets for municipalities to meet. The province tasked Toronto with creating 285,000 new homes by 2031.
Other changes include softer environmental regulations and a break for developers for various charges on certain housing types, such as rental development or affordable housing. Municipalities typically collect development charges for new projects to pay for associated improvements in the area, such as new parks or upgraded sewer and water facilities.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Tory said he thinks the housing target is achievable, but there needs to be further discussion around some of the details.
“I think the overall number that seems to be attributed to Toronto during that period of time is achievable,” he said. “I just think it's all the details underneath that and within that that are more important such as, you know, does it come at the expense of environmental standards? Does it come at a financial cost to us that is just not bearable, you know, by the city at this moment in time because of DCs (development charges)? Does it come at the expense of other things that are important to us and so this is all part of the discussion we have to have with them going forward.”
Speaking with CP24 Wednesday morning, Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark said there have been some preliminary discussions about how municipalities could make up the shortfall from the reduction in development charges.
“We've had some preliminary discussions with the federal government. They've got a $4 billion accelerator fund that we're hopeful and we're optimistic that we'll be able to work collaboratively with the federal government to use this fund for some assistance to our municipal partners,” Clark said. “Municipalities also have development charge reserve funds, and we're pushing with this bill to have them utilize a portion of it so that we can have pipes in the ground as opposed to money in the bank.”
Clark also said that the province will be looking to open up some conservation lands for new development and to fold the 36 separate conservation authorities into a single provincial agency to reduce red tape.
“So we want to work with them to see if there's some conservation lands that might be better used for housing,” he said, pointing out that conservation authorities are the second largest land owner in the province after the Crown.
