Wayne Gates and environmental activist pointed out the need for the Greenbelt
A plea to Niagara Falls city council to do its part to save the Greenbelt from the province's Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act.
That came from Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates, who spoke at the Tuesday night meeting, alongside local environmental activist Owen Bjorgan.
After their presentation, Councillor Strange pointed to statistics indicating Ontario needs 1.5-million homes, but he wondered how without touching the Greenbelt.
"Without that I don't know how you build that many homes. We're in trouble... the prices are going down, but the mortgage rates are going up. If the mortgage rates stayed where they were last year and the prices came down, people would be able to afford housing, but they can't," he says.
Gates told him there is enough room to build 2-million homes without touching the Greenbelt.
Another city councillor agrees with the province's plan to eliminate development charges. Mona Patel says she wants savings passed to affordable housing buyers.
However, Gates told her this would cost municipalities $5.1-billion over 9-years. She then suggested the province could help. "If the provincial government reimbursed that to the municipality, it's still coming from the same taxpayer. I think we got the letter from Niagara-on-the-Lake, and they are saying the impact is going to be $1.3-million over 5 years... so that does not look like a big number."
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