The Annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference kicked of in London on Sunday.
As municipal leaders from across the province arrived to London’s RBC place convention centre the housing crisis top of mind for most.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made his own visit to London promoting a message that doesn’t appear to sit well with many mayors and councillors.
“We have to get out local governments out of the way so that builders can build,” told CTV News Sunday morning. He says, under a Conservative government, federal funds may be withheld if more building permits aren’t issued. “I’m going to require cities to permit 15 per cent more home building per year as a condition getting federal infrastructure money.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre address a gathering at an east London truck and forklift driving school on Sunday August 20, 2023 (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)Poilievre says Canada has the second slowest building permit process of any of the 38 countries that make up the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation. He says the Conservatives will also cap spending and cuts costs to bring down interest rates to spur new builds. The permit plan is what concerns the chair of the Ontario Big Bity Mayors (OBCM), which held a news conference Sunday afternoon to kick off the AMO gathering.
“All of us have to come together to solve this and if we simply put all of it on the back of municipalities we won’t get this done,” said OBCM Chair and Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, responding to Poilievre’s comments. “It’s not helpful and it’s not going to get us where we need to go.”
The big city mayors commissioned a report from the Place Centre an Ottawa social issues research agency which calls for the building of 1.5 million new residential units in Ontario over ten years. The previous highest ten-year buildout was 850 units. The report says it will take all levels of government.
Builders and others to make it happen.
“At the end of the day, this is all about shared accountability,” said London Mayor Josh Morgan. “Not blaming one level of government over another or one partner over someone else.”
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