MPP Wayne Gates, July 6, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 23

Our presentation focused on the recent provincial legislation, Bill 23, which is opening up our Greenbelt for development.

Let me start by saying this: we have a housing crisis in Niagara and across the Province of Ontario. No one disagrees on that.  

I support building homes and particularly affordable housing—but I do not support building on our Greenbelt and environmentally significant wetlands.

And I don’t support a plan that lacks consultation and will download costs onto municipalities and local taxpayers, who are already struggling with a historic affordability crisis.

I want to commend Town of Fort Erie staff, the Mayor, and the Town Council for their very clear advocacy on this issue.

As your Member of Provincial Parliament, I want to be clear and upfront on what Bill 23 is and what it will do to communities like Fort Erie.

The province has told us the goals of Bill 23 are simple—to build more homes and reduce housing costs across the province.

But I strongly believe that Bill 23 is not the answer to our housing affordability crisis.

Firstly, there is the impact this will have on local government finances.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, or AMO, which represents all 444 municipalities in the Province, said in November of last year that they believed the changes in the Bill around development charges would, “contradict the goal of building more housing”, and would shift the financial burden onto existing taxpayers.

AMO has also said that their analysis shows that Bill 23 would cut over $5 billion in funding to municipalities in the Province of Ontario over the next nine years.

These are serious financial concerns with the impact of Bill 23 on local municipalities – and they disproportionately impact smaller Towns and communities. 

Families in Fort Erie are facing a lot of challenges right now—healthcare access, affordability, and environmental preservation.

When the province begins downloading costs unto municipalities, it becomes increasingly difficult to meet those challenges head on.  

Look no further than the Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre, where Niagara Health has recently announced that services will be cut from 24/7 to 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

We are losing access to these services, that people in our community need. It is the job of government to tackle these problems and get people in Fort Erie the health care they deserve.  

The provincial government shouldn’t be making that task harder.

From my perspective, our job is to support you. We should be working to support municipalities—not download problems and costs onto your shoulders.

Next, I wanted to talk about the environment impacts of the Bill – which is why I brought Owen along with me to present to Council.

A resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake and a long-time advocate for Niagara’s natural heritage, Owen works as an outdoor educator for the District School Board of Niagara and runs his own hiking & paddling company. He’s created a nature documentary on Niagara and was an official Ted Talk speaker.

Owen noted here in the Niagara region, we have a Carolinian Forest Zone – which has the highest rate of biodiversity, or species richness, anywhere in the country. This ecozone contains more species of plants and animals than anywhere in the country, including 1/3 of the nation’s rare or endangered species.

In Fort Erie, we have some of the most important wetlands and forests in all of Canada. If we lose these natural features, we also lose a lot of the “free” ecosystem services, like flood control, erosion prevention, and shoreline protection – which leads to less ability for our community to handle and recover from storms and flooding.

Additionally, this current provincial government made no mention of their plans to open up the Greenbelt in the last election – in fact, Doug Ford promised not to touch it in 2018.

We know that the provincial government’s own housing affordability task force said in 2022 that, “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem” and that we do not need to build on the Greenbelt to build the 1.5 million homes they said the Province needs. 

I firmly believe that our Greenbelt and environmentally significant land should be protected.

Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less— and as elected officials, we must be doing everything in our power to preserve the environment for future generations.

We can build more than 1.5 million homes in this province without touching our Greenbelt.

Bill 23 does not do what is necessary to fix the housing crisis in Niagara and across the province.

There are real solutions—but it takes political will.

True government investment has the power to create affordable housing—and we must support municipalities and local taxpayers, not hurt them financially.

And while we work to increase that housing supply, we must protect tenants from unfair rent increases.

We must bring back rent controls for new builds in the province of Ontario.

We also must begin investing in non-market housing, creating affordable homes in existing neighbourhoods.

And lastly, maybe most importantly, we need to listen. We must meaningfully consult municipalities, local communities, and AMO.

And with such little consultation on the actual bill, and the refusal to listen to the issues presented by AMO, how can we stand by and really believe this is the best solution to such a large problem?

Fort Erie can continue to grow, make investments in smart development, and address our housing crisis while protecting the environment for our kids and grandkids.