Giving credit where credit’s due

The  cost of the province’s cancellation or freeze on development charges will show up as a separate line item on Burlington tax bills. That was the word from Burlington Marianne Meed Ward in an interview with CHML this week. The development charge reduction was announced by the Ford government as part of Bill 23—The Building More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022. The government claims the fee reductions are meant to stimulate rental and affordable housing. The financial hit to municipal coffers was estimated at $5 Billion.  Hamilton staff told councillors that in Hamilton it could mean a loss in excess of $20 Million.

Burlington’s idea of clearly showing the impact of the provincial hit on the tax bill will remind Premier Doug Ford that ‘what goes around, comes around’. It was Ford you’ll recall who passed a law in 2020 that forced gas station operators to display a sticker on gas pumps that showed the cost of the Federal Government’s green fuel surcharges. That law was overturned by the courts, but who knows—maybe served as a precedent for the Burlington initiative.