Ever since founding the Fix Our Schools campaign in 2014, we’ve believed strongly that developers ought to contribute financially to the public infrastructure in the neighbourhoods where they choose to build. We believe developers choose to build in neighbourhoods that maximize profitability – which generally means where there are good local schools and other public goods like public transit and community spaces. Therefore, it only makes sense that developers contribute financially to the public infrastructure that allows them to profit.
Since 2014, we’ve urged the provincial government to change its outdated regulation guiding the eligibility for and use of Education Development Charges (EDCs), which prevented many Ontario school boards from collecting development fees and limited usage of said fees to only the purchase of new land.
Absolutely correct, it’s a big reason why we have such a large repair backlog. Problems grow exponentially when they are neglected. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure- applies directly to these issues. EDCs can help in a big way, especially in our developing city.
— Christopher Mammoliti (@ChrisMammoliti) May 10, 2019
On May 2, 2019 Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, announced the “More homes, more choice: Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan”, which includes the following proposed changes to the EDC regulation:
- Allow only modest increases in EDCs to help make housing more affordable
- Allow for innovative and lower-cost alternatives to site acquisition.
Neither of these proposed changes does anything to address the fact that millions of dollars are being left in developers pockets every year rather than being used to contribute to school infrastructure in the communities where they are profiting. Similarly, these proposed changes do nothing to address the limitation of the current regulation that only allows school boards to use EDCs for purchasing new land, which simply doesn’t make sense in densely populated urban areas. We’ve requested a meeting with Education Minister Thompson to better understand these proposed changes but at first blush, we are sad to see a lost opportunity to improve the school conditions where 2-million Ontario children spend their days.