A Peterborough councillor not too long ago shocked a few of his fellow council members when he proposed an sudden answer in a seek for solutions to his metropolis’s housing disaster.
Keith Riel proposed that the town delay six infrastructure tasks starting from pickleball courts to street enhancements, which might have probably freed up near $16 million.
“I felt there was some projects, even though they’re great projects — there’s nothing wrong with them — I just felt that we could defer them,” he mentioned. “Certainly use the $15.95 million for housing and homelessness.”
However some members of council have been caught off guard by Riel’s proposal and balked on the concept as metropolis workers additionally famous that a number of the funds meant for these tasks got here from different ranges of presidency and couldn’t merely be converted to a housing challenge.
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“A lot of people have already made their mind up, especially on the Bonnerworth pickleball courts. So it was kind of a flyer, if you want to use that word, for me,” Riel not too long ago instructed Ontario Chronicle.
“Just a sober second thought that either you can come along with me now and vote tonight, because in two months, you’re going to have to do the same thing and face the same reality.”
The evening he made the proposal, councillors have been debating the 2025 finances, deciding whether or not to place a tough cap of 5 per cent on growing property taxes subsequent yr.
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The dilemma that Peterborough council is dealing with is enjoying out all throughout Ontario as cities and cities try to cope with the housing disaster, which has seen the rising value of each proudly owning and renting houses fall out of individuals’s grasp.
“I think this whole situation draws attention to how dire the problem of homelessness is, and how limited are the resources that municipalities have to deal with this issue,” mentioned Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan College.
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He mentioned the truth that Peterborough, which has a inhabitants of round 80,000 folks, is battling a housing disaster exhibits that it isn’t only a downside for Canada’s largest cities.
“We typically, I think, associate homelessness with our largest cities in the country – the Torontos, Vancouvers, Montreal,” Siemiatycki mentioned.
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“Peterborough, it turns out, has the second-highest per capita rate of emergency shelters in the province of Ontario. So this is a problem that exists in communities large and small across Ontario.”
The difficulty has been boiling up for a very long time now, in line with Laura Pin, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier College in Waterloo.
“We have a period from the early 1990s to the early 2010s where the federal government basically built no social housing,” she mentioned. “And now we’re shocked that we have an affordable housing crisis that’s playing out in our local communities. And so a lot of folks could say, this is exactly what we would predict would have happened.“
Pin noted that municipalities have had an increasing level of responsibilities on their plate, which has created dilemmas like the one Peterborough is facing.
“Municipalities historically have been responsible for things like local roads, sewer, recreation facilities,” she mentioned. “And right now, I think municipalities are in a really tough situation because they’re increasingly responsible for more social services and more of the housing portfolio without commensurate revenue-raising tools.”
There are few income instruments out there to municipalities exterior of property taxes as higher ranges of presidency get the lion’s share of the tax cash.
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“Of all the tax revenues that the people of Canada throw into a pot, less than $0.10 goes to municipalities,” Siemiatycki mentioned.
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“The property tax cannot generate the funds that are needed to keep up with infrastructure and with a whole range of social issues and challenges that manifest themselves and play out at the municipal level.”
The municipalities have been much more handcuffed when the Ford authorities took away the event {charges} in 2022.
“Bill 23 that the provincial government passed in 2022, which cut development charges, that also has implications here, in so far as development charges were one of the ways that municipalities paid for infrastructure,” Pin mentioned.
One thing like a pickleball courtroom or airport upkeep might not appear necessary, however these are additionally essential infrastructure for neighborhood constructing.
“I think those are really important for the livability of the community,” Pin mentioned. “But the reality is that right now, the municipalities are facing the housing crisis in really direct ways, without the resources, I think, to effectively combat some of the issues that they’re seeing.”
Siemiatycki additionally mentioned municipal governments shouldn’t be neglecting one space to deal with one other and that it was time for the higher ranges of presidency to fill in.
“It shouldn’t come to starving necessary other municipal services to address the homelessness problem,” he mentioned. “Municipalities need the resources, the funding, the support from senior levels of government in order to tackle, the housing problem, which is lived and experienced at the municipal level. ”
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With the absence of extra help from the provincial and federal governments, municipalities like Peterborough are left on the lookout for options to the housing disaster.
“Building new housing or investing in housing, it really is a cash-intensive process. It requires a degree of revenue raising that’s really difficult for municipalities.” Pin mentioned. “And I think a lot of municipalities are trying to think creatively about this, but not being able to leverage income tax puts municipalities in a difficult position.”
Editor’s observe: this story has been up to date to appropriate the identify of the park wherein the pickleball courts are deliberate.
