The disagreement between Premier Doug Ford and Newmarket Mayor John Taylor regarding housing targets may have been resolved after a meeting last weekend.
The two leaders met after Ford publicly called out Taylor for not backing the province’s housing targets. The province has set a goal of 12,000 homes to be built in Newmarket over the next 10 years in its More Homes Built Faster Act, but Newmarket said it could not meet the target due to lack of sewage capacity.
Taylor told council April 3 that he explained the sewage situation to Ford at their meeting and that it will take several years for a solution to be in place.
“It was, hopefully, a productive meeting,” Taylor said. “I thought it was a good meeting.”
The province is pushing GTA municipalities to build houses to meet its target of 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years. However, Newmarket only has the capacity for about 2,000 homes until its sewage system is expanded, which is still years away after a protracted end to the proposed Upper York Sewage Solution.
The town's pushback caused Ford to call out Taylor by name during a news conference last week. Asked about the meeting and if Ford found Taylor’s response regarding sewage capacity satisfactory, premier’s office spokesperson Caitlin Clark said the meeting was productive.
“They discussed our government’s ambitious but critical plan to build 1.5 million homes — and the need for all levels of government to work together to get more homes built faster,” Clark said. “Ontario has been working to accommodate population growth in York Region by helping to increase the region’s wastewater servicing capacity in a timely, cost-effective way, and the new legislation will enable York Region to meet its wastewater servicing needs."
The province announced last year that the Upper York Sewage Solution would not get built, denying the environmental assessment approval York Region has waited for since 2014. The project had opposition from the Chippewas of Georgina Island and environmental groups concerned about its impact on Lake Simcoe. As an alternative, the province has indicated plans to upgrade an existing plant in Durham to increase York’s sewage capacity.
The premier’s office response did not directly address NewmarketToday's question if Ford was satisfied Newmarket could not meet the housing target of 12,000 new houses based on how many years it will take for sewage capacity to get built.
Taylor also said he raised the issue of municipal funding under Bill 23, which will decrease the amount of development charges municipalities can collect. The province has promised municipalities will be “kept whole” and still have the dollars they need to build out infrastructure for new development, something Taylor said Ford reiterated.
The bill also prevents municipalities from collecting any development charges from other developments for municipal efforts to build subsidized housing, which Taylor said was a point he left with Ford.
Many Newmarket residents have spoken out in support of Taylor in this dispute with the provincial government.
“Virtually every resident of Newmarket knows we’re highly constrained in terms of our sewage capacity,” Taylor said.
