WATERLOO REGION — The province’s housing affordability task force recommends sweeping changes that would allow developers to fast-track some housing projects, pay fewer fees and at times forgo public consultation and other planning processes.

The panel was convened by the minister of municipal affairs and housing in December to suggest ways to deal with the housing shortage crisis. The task force report was released in January.

What happens next is up to the province.

Among other criticisms, the report said municipalities conduct too much public consultation for political reasons.

It largely calls on the province to set standards and practices municipalities would have to follow, taking away some local decision-making powers and discretion.

“It’s written from a big business perspective and that is one perspective on how to build houses however there are other perspectives — planning perspectives, proper consultation perspectives, local citizen perspectives,” Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky said. “And when we’re planning things out for 30, 40, 50 years … it’s good to give thoughtful consultation.”

Under the Planning Act municipalities are required to hold one formal public meeting at which a vote is taken to approve or not approve a project.

Waterloo conducts an informal meeting first to introduce big projects to residents.

The report says those practices should be scrapped.

“Because local councillors depend on the votes of residents who want to keep the status quo, the planning process has become politicized. Municipalities allow far more public consultation than is required, often using formats that make it hard for working people and families with young children to take part,” the report reads.

Jaworsky said the city supports keeping its consultation practices.

Municipalities are dealing with record-high home costs due to supply shortages. [See approved lots not being built on by developers.]

Ten years ago the average home price in Ontario was $329,000. At the end of 2021 that cost hit $923,000, according to the report.

That’s an increase of 180 percent. During the same period, the average income increased 38 percent.

According to a Scotiabank study completed in 2021 and updated in January two-thirds of Canada’s housing shortage is in Ontario.

The report said Ontario needs 1.5 million new homes over the next decade to deal with the shortage.

For the purpose of this report, the definition of home included detached, semi-detached or attached homes, apartments, suites, condominiums and mobile homes.

The task force was not asked to consider subsidized housing as part of its report.

It also recommends that development charges be waived for certain projects.

Development charges are fees developers pay for items related to growth like roads and sewers.

“If those costs aren’t paid for by the developer then they’re borne by the existing citizens through property taxes … and that is not acceptable,” Jaworsky said. “Growth should pay for growth.”

Regional Chair Karen Redman said the province also needs to be looking at hospitals, schools and highways to support any new growth.

“We can’t just build houses and not have services available that everybody expects to be there and they need to be funded by the province,” Redman said.

She added, “I think that you can’t impose things on the community. I think that there still has to be due process, I still believe in managed growth.”

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said the report could have benefitted from municipal input.

“I think what concerns me is there are some (ideas) that maybe would have benefitted from a municipal lens to perhaps help the task force better understand some of the processes and realities in terms of what cities deal with,” he said.

He said any process that seeks to limit community engagement would be an issue. And while the goal of building 1.5 million new homes during the next decade is admirable, Vrbanovic said supply chain and labour shortages might make that difficult.

The report also makes specific recommendations around heritage that include:

Earlier this month the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario issued a release in response to the report.

“The housing affordability task force overreached its mandate when it waded into discussions of heritage,” said Diane Chin, ACO Chair. “The task force had neither representation or (sic) input from anyone with heritage experience.”

Jean Haalboom is a former regional councillor and now sits on the ACO board, though she spoke on her own behalf.

She said the report should have recommended ways to incentivize reuse of heritage and older buildings, rather than present them as something standing in the way of development.

It’s Haalboom’s opinion that the heritage recommendations are borne from the “sour grapes” of a handful of developers.

“They want to do the quick fix, get in there, bulldoze, down it comes and likely they do not have an understanding of the heritage, of the value and the place of this heritage structure in the community and its value to the community,” she said.

Haalboom pointed to projects like Alexandra School and St. Louis School in Waterloo as local success stories.

They were approved to be converted to new residential uses.

Recommendations include: