Toronto’s desperate times call for obvious solutions

Karen Renkema, VP of Ontario

Toronto is a city in crisis. COVID-19 is driving home the plight of Toronto’s homeless, the dire shortage of affordable housing, and the desperation of city officials to cover a funding shortfall that’s reached historic proportions. Toronto, like all cities, is doing everything it can to recover from the global pandemic, or is it?

Toronto has consistently ranked as one of the world’s most livable cities. That was before the global pandemic magnified an existing crisis: low-income earners who can’t make their rent, families by the thousands on a waiting list for affordable housing, a massive backlog of community housing repairs, and now with social distancing measures in place, shelters that have run out of space for the city’s destitute.  

Just recently, Toronto Mayor John Tory announced a solution. He called for 3,000 new affordable housing units. Building modular homes and acquiring and renovating existing buildings, is much more cost-effective the mayor says than building and operating more shelters. But still, there’s a hefty price tag.

The mayor has asked the federal and provincial governments to kick in more than $700 million to make it happen. This is on top of a ten-year $23 billion plan endorsed by council last year to bolster new affordable rental homes. Again, other levels of government have been asked to kick in the lion’s share. Both plans are in addition to a special levy approved by council last December in which taxpayers will help fund more affordable housing stock.

It’s during times like these when COVID-19 could set city coffers back by as much as $1.5 billion, that Toronto should be looking at every possible means of funding critical and essential services – including affordable housing. “While we are scouring the city government for savings … we will need help from other levels of government,” the mayor has said.

But wait, help is exactly what the Ford government offered last year through Bill 66. ‘Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act’ provided Toronto, other municipalities and public entities with a golden opportunity to save anywhere from 8 to 15 percent on the cost of building public infrastructure, like new affordable housing. Opening up competition on public infrastructure projects and allowing for more bids, lowers costs. Simply put: It means more affordable housing and housing repairs, more public transit and splash pads. More parks and arenas can also be constructed, all at a fraction of the current cost.

While other cities and regions embraced Bill 66, the City of Toronto opted out of the legislation and potential cost savings in the tens of millions of dollars. Toronto voted instead to expand a select group of companies and labour groups that have monopolized the city’s public construction projects for decades. By discouraging competition and not allowing other qualified workers and companies to build municipal projects, costs keep rising.

That’s what’s happening at the Toronto District School Board and Toronto Community Housing Corporation. They also passed up on the potential for major cost savings. Although they both face massive funding shortfalls for needed building improvements, they followed Toronto’s lead and opted out of Bill 66.

But the point is not to disparage or assign blame. It’s to remind all of Toronto’s elected officials that Bill 66 remains an option. Asking the Ontario government to reopen the legislation to allow Toronto to opt back in, would go a long way in solving the City’s funding challenges and treating all workers fairly. Saving millions and providing every qualified worker with the chance to help Toronto rebuild from the pandemic, seems like a winning option.

There is no good reason for Toronto not to rethink Bill 66. These are desperate times that call for obvious solutions.

This post appeared in the Toronto Sun.

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