Toronto Council meets today!
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"Would it be fair to characterize this first phase as us proving to other governments that this can work ... but if we want to do it at scale, we're going to need the federal and provincial governments to come in and assist?" asks Councillor Perks.
Staff agree with that.
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Housing Secretariat Executive Director Abi Bond says city hall has already been hearing from developers with planned residential projects that have stalled and could be shifted to take advantage of this rental incentive program.
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Cheng asks the CFO about the $$$ the city will give up by waiving dev charges. It's $325 million that would normally go to things like parks and rec centres. CFO says he's analyzed it, and this is the "upset limit" of how much rev they can give up without impacting infra plans.
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Councillor Mike Colle asks why city hall can't just its sizeable reserve funds to cover the cost of infrastructure. CFO Stephen Conforti says the reserves are fully committed — city has about $6.5 billion in projects committed against reserves, plus $6 billion in unfunded needs.
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"Are we doing anything to promote home ownership in this city?" wonders Holyday, noting home prices growing faster than rents. "What are we doing for the other half of the city other than making it more expensive to own a home?"
Bond says there's an affordable ownership program.
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Perruzza says, "We should stop pretending there is a math-science to this. There are more unknowns than there are knowns." He's worried about the city getting "fleeced" with these deals. Bond says units will be privately-owned, and city won't be on the hook for ongoing costs.
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Councillor Brad Bradford asks if it's true the math on this rental incentive program says projects will only be viable if they also take advantage of other government support programs. Bond says, "We won't know that for sure until after phase one" but it's a real possibility.
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"There's a false belief that everybody bought into. Just build, build, build the housing — supply the housing and we'll solve the program. Well, it didn't work!" says Councillor Mike Colle. He says city has dealt with supply, "but we didn't think of the demand!"
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"This supply-side, Milton Friedman, trickle-down economics was a total failure when it comes to housing. It did not work!" says Councillor Mike Colle. He says city is now trying to "step in and fill the gap."
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Colle has also taken to referring to condos as "condo warehouses" which is an interesting turn of phrase.
He says rental incentive programs like this one should be the domain of federal and provincial governments, but city has to "punch about its weight" and get it done.
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"What City Council here is feebly trying to do is 'bend the curve' with respect to the cost of renting in this city. They're doing nothing for the owners — the other half of the city. In fact, what they're doing is shuffling costs onto those owners," says Holyday.
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Councillor Stephen Holyday has printed out charts and is now comparing the growth of rental costs with the growth of housing prices. He disputes that there's a "housing crisis" in Toronto. He says council has "so many levers it can control to make life more affordable."
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Councillor Brad Bradford, noting he called for a rental incentive program earlier this year, says this program "shows such a lack of alignment" with the feedback from developers about their costs.
"The incentives proposed are not enough. It's mild. It's meek. It's inadequate."
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Bradford says there's more promise in phase 2 of the rental incentive program, but it needs $9 billion combined from the federal and provincial govs.
"So I just think it's a little disingenuous for us to go out there and suggest we're unlocking 20K units of housing."
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Councillor Gord Perks, on the other hand, calls the rental incentive program "totally revolutionary."
"It's smart and it will be effective."
Perks takes issue with Bradford citing RESCON and BILD, saying those trade associations will always be asking for more from city hall.
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"Just about every developer in the city of Toronto wants in" to the rental incentive program, says Perks. He says city has taken "courageous step" to rebalance market more toward purpose-built rentals. He says staff have shown their "genius" with this program. I think he's a fan
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"We do have a housing crisis in front of us. If we can't see it in the face of our neighbours, I don't know why we're here. We know we need to build more affordable housing because, for three decades, every level of government walked away," says Mayor Olivia Chow.
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With no motions but with some skeptical speeches, Toronto's new rental housing incentive program is APPROVED 23-1.
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One agenda item down, 58 to go. And that takes Council to lunch. They'll be back at 2 p.m. So will I.
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A bit late, but Council is back.
Up now: a deferred item from last meeting. Councillor Saxe wants a report on allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local neighbourhood polls. The city uses these to measure support for things like permit parking. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.DM23.1
