Port Colborne Mayor is expecting growth, and says provincial plan to build more homes will help
Port Colborne's mayor says "this is our time", as he looks to the next 10 years, and sees the growth projected for the city.
Bill Steele is anticipating about 10,000 people moving there by 2030.
With that, Port Colborne will need more housing, so the mayor is looking to the province's plan to build more homes faster, also known as the contentious Bill 23.
He says he supports the purpose behind it, however, he struggles with eliminating development charges.
He says infrastructure, such as sewers, playgrounds, fire halls need to be paid for somehow. "Is it through infrastructure type grants, that are here on a yearly basis.... it's almost like the federal government with their gas tax, where they say, ok, every year each municipality based on a formula gets X amount of dollars for infrastructure."
The mayor adds he knows eliminating development charges is meant to lower the cost of homes, but expansion costs money.
"We have quite a number of subdivisions that have been on the books since the mid 1980s, and although those subdivisions have been planned for a long time, now they have to catch up to the new rules, such as the environmental rules."
The mayor adds they are looking at expansion of business and industry over the coming years.
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