Richmond Hill’s Bird Conservation Commitment

Oct 18, 2023

Updates on Nov 3, 2023

Provincial:

Yesterday, the Minister of Finance introduced Bill 146, Building a Strong Ontario Together Act (Budget Measures), 2023 and presented the Fall Economic Statement (2023 Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Building a Strong Ontario Together).  This also kicks off public consultation on the 2024 Provincial Budget, with feedback open until January 31, 2024.

If passed, Bill 146 will make amendments to a number of statutes, including some relevant to municipalities:

• The Fuel Tax Act and Gasoline Tax Act: Extending the current reduction in tax on fuel that began in July 2022 to June 20, 2024.
• The Construction Act: Amended to introduce regulation-making authority to allow for lower minimum bonding requirements for large public infrastructure projects that do not involve private financing.

The Fall Economic Statement reviewed a number of initiatives relevant to municipalities:

• The previously announced removal of the provincial portion of the HST on for qualifying new purpose-built rental housing, complimenting the federal removal of their portion of the HST.
• Launch of the Ontario Infrastructure Bank, a new agency responsible for attracting public-sector pension plans and other institutional investors to participate in large-scale critical infrastructure projects, with proposed initial funding of $3 billion from the government.  Per the Municipal Finance Officers Association, project investments will initially be focused on new long-term care homes, energy infrastructure, affordable housing, municipal and community infrastructure and transportation.
• Investing $200 million over three years in a new Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, for the repair, rehabilitation and expansion of a variety of municipal water infrastructure projects.
• Investment more than $1 billion over three years in the Skilled Trades Strategy, as well as $860 million in the Training Stream and $224 million in the Capital Stream of the Skills Development Fund.

Of special note to Richmond Hill, the government took this opportunity to highlight that in April 2023, it had issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Advance Tunnel Contract for the Yonge North Subway Extension, which includes constructing the tunnels and building the launch and extraction shafts used for the tunnel boring machines. Upgrades at Finch Station, which will include improvements made to the electrical system that powers the rails, are underway.  The Greater Golden Horseshoe Transit Map included in the Fall Economic Statement (see here) includes YNSE with stations at Steeles, Clark, Royal Orchard, Bridge and High Tech as well as a potential station at Cummer.

The Province announced the following key changes to its 2023/24 projections:

• Revenues are projected to be $2.6B lower than budget,
• Expenses are projected to be $1.7B higher than budget, and
• The deficit is projected to be $5.6B, a $4.3B increase from budget.  Despite this the Minister of Finance says the province still plans to have a balanced budget by 2025-26.

Other analysis/commentary of the Fall Economic Statement:

• Provincial news release
• AMO
• Strategy Corp
• OBCM

In other provincial news, the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy has taken on the Minister of Municipal Affairs request to undertake the study of regional governance that previously was assigned to facilitators.  The committee has scheduled a hearing on this on November 6 in Barrie.

Federal:

In October, the Supreme Court ruled that parts of the Impact Assessment Act, which outlines a planning and decision-making tool used to assess the positive and negative environmental, economic, health, and social effects of proposed projects as well as impacts to Indigenous groups and rights of Indigenous peoples, are unconstitutional, specifically by encroaching on projects that should be within provincial jurisdiction.  The government issued a response from the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) issued a statement ahead of the federal Fall Economic Statement about municipal priorities including housing and infrastructure: “All orders of government need to work together to solve Canada’s housing crisis. That starts with a recognition of—and commitment to solve—the very real but often unseen challenge of ensuring Canada’s public infrastructure can support the housing growth Canadians expect. The federal government has signaled that new details about their next generation of infrastructure funding are coming soon. Those details, and the upcoming Fall Economic Statement, must commit to infrastructure funding that not only meets the scope of our current challenges, but also recognizes the immense work and investment ahead if we are to meet the CMHC home building targets of 5.8 million homes by 2030—roughly doubling the annual rate of housing construction.”