Mayor John Tory is raising red flags about Premier Doug Ford’s housing plan, warning it could cost the cash-strapped city hundreds of millions of dollars in forgone development charges.
Tory made the comments Wednesday at city hall, two days after he decisively won a third term in Monday’s municipal election.
Tory said he was generally supportive of the province’s push to accelerate housing construction, but he is “very concerned about the financial implications for the city of Toronto.” “If they believe, and I don’t even dispute the fact, that this could be a valuable tool to get rental housing built, well then, help us, be good partners with us and put up the money or work with the feds to put it up together. Because we just don’t have the ability to raise that money,” he said.
Toronto has budgeted more than $540 million from development charges to fund its 10-year capital plan. Other elements in the bill, like limiting conservation authorities’ ability to oppose development in sensitive areas, have been met with criticism.