FUN ADVOCACY POSITIONS

The Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario) strongly objects to the Ontario Government proposal to “pause” a policy that would have forced developers to include “affordable” units in major housing projects near a subset of transit stations (Protected Major Transit Areas – PMTSAs) in Toronto, Kitchener and Mississauga.

The Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario), on behalf of urban communities across the Province, urges the Ontario Government to pause making the rapid, drastic, costly, and irreparable changes to the structure of Conservation Authorities as contained in this policy proposal; rather we ask that the Province establish an independent public process to consider a future course for the CAs, with full engagement with conservation authorities, municipalities, other stakeholders, and the public.

This is to express our comments and concerns on the above noted proposal to implement the part of Bill 5 focusing on Special Economic Zones Criteria. We continue to support respect for the rule of law, particularly with respect to Indigenous sovereignty which requires free, prior, and informed consent, and the critical importance of protecting biodiversity and environmental rights.

The proposed regulatory criteria for Special Economic Zones (SEZ) rely on “Minister’s opinion”, substituting subjectivity for objective evidence, and lacking a transparent process for assessing health, environmental, social, and economic consequences of implementing a project proposal.

This is to express the strong objection and concern of the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario) regarding the Region of Halton’s recent decision to dismantle the Region’s artifact collection, representing both the loss of a coherent regional heritage collection, and potentially the breaking of a public trust commitment to care for an object, which was established when it was accessioned.

We also object to the manner in which the decision was made – in closed session without public input. We request that you urgently reconsider the Region’s decision.

FUN recognizes the significant fiscal challenges facing the Government of Ontario, some representing continuing impacts of the COVID pandemic. We also believe that investing in and maintaining physical, social health and environmental infrastructure, all the while addressing the Climate Emergency are critical to the future wellbeing of all Ontario residents.

However, we are choosing to focus at this time on four matters: the growing Housing Market and Housing Affordability issue, Growing Protected Areas, Save Ontario Place, and Save the Ontario Science Centre.

FUN AGM Presentation – Saturday, June 18, 2022

Guest Speaker: Graham Churchill, Executive Director, A Better Richmond Hill

Sprawl, Tall, or Infill – Are These Really Our Only Choices

With the Ontario government expecting the GTA to grow by an additional 2.9M people in the next 25 years, we need a sensible growth plan. The politicians aren’t doing it so citizen groups need to come together to create one. Graham Churchill has a plan, and he’s looking for like-minded community groups to help refine it.

Question 1:

• What are the biggest barriers and delays to diversifying the types of housing built in existing neighbourhoods?

Response

The question is built on several assumptions – which are unproven:

1. That the housing price issue can be solved through increasing supply.  Instead we need to address the demand issues, such as land speculation e.g. flipping, vacant housing, the real estate industry practices that force up prices;
2. That there is a housing shortage when in fact the number of homes increased at a greater rate than population;

The Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario) is an umbrella group of community associations throughout Ontario. As such we maintain a close interest in the changes to provincial planning legislation introduced by the Government. The latest changes amount to another massive overhaul of the planning process and a new set of directives focussed on supply, rather than demand for homes, but in addition, reducing the role of duly elected municipal councils, and attacking residents who devote their time and energy to contribute to their communities’ development.

The Government’s policy changes, including moving forward with Highway 413, and making municipalities designate more farmland for development, have favoured companies looking to build low-density sprawl outside Toronto.