“Team Ontario” Federal Infrastructure Funding Agreement Negotiation and Bill 185 Comments to Standing Committee
“Team Ontario” Approach
On April 18, Minister Calandra sent a letter to AMO’s President proposing a collaborative, “Team Ontario” approach to federal infrastructure funding agreement negotiations. AMO strongly supports municipalities working collaboratively with the province to achieve the alignment needed across all the levels of government to get housing built in Ontario.
Ontario's municipalities are planning $100 billion in growth-related capital expenditures over the next decade. New federal infrastructure funding could be an important contribution, but the funding requirements need to make sense for Ontario. While details remain unclear regarding eligibility for upper-tier municipalities, the potential impact of the proposed development charge freeze is a definite concern for all municipalities with populations over 300,000. A potential three-year freeze on development charges on these municipalities could actually reduce their ability to keep pace with anticipated growth.
AMO will continue to work with municipal staff and provincial officials to ensure the federal government understands the impacts these restrictions would have on development in Ontario. By municipalities and the province working together, we can ensure these federal funds are accessible and effectively address the critical infrastructure needs of all Ontario municipalities.
For a broad overview of key infrastructure funding programs, AMO has developed this helpful resource to give our sector a full picture of its infrastructure funding.
Bill 185 Comments to Standing Committee
Yesterday, AMO commented and provided a written submission on the Bill at the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs’ public hearings. Comments focused on the positive outcome of the province’s collaboration with municipalities, demonstrated with the reversal of two key Bill 23 development charge reversals. AMO called for the reversal of additional development charges to enable municipalities to fund the infrastructure required for growth.
