This was an interesting week in municipal politics, and it really didn’t have anything to do with city hall.
On Monday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra announced that changes made by his predecessor to a dozen different official plans, including Guelph’s, were being cancelled because they did not support the province’s goal of building 1.5 million homes in Ontario while holding on to the public trust.
“In reviewing how decisions were made regarding official plans, it is now clear that they failed to meet this test,” Calandra said in a statement.
In the last 16 months, the Ontario government has initiated four general programs designed to jump start housing in Ontario: the Greenbelt land swap, the alteration to fee collection like development charges, Strong Mayor Powers, and rewriting municipal official plans to allow expanded borders and more density above what was prescribed in those plans from city governments.
As of today, the Ontario government has reneged on half of that agenda, and it’s not like they were subtle when enacting it either.
Queen’s Park has acted like a proverbial sledgehammer in getting these four changes accomplished, and they called out anyone that had any doubt or concern as being an impediment to addressing a terrible housing crisis that seemingly came out of nowhere just a few years ago.
So what are we to think now that the politics of failure have failed again?
Perhaps we should offer praise to our local politicians for being right. Mayor Cam Guthrie told GuelphToday that “Livid is an understatement” when it comes to his feelings about the provincial flip-flop, but Guthrie was also the only 'no' vote at a May city council meeting directing him to write a letter to the former minister to register the collective disgruntlement of his colleagues with changes to the Official Plan.
Hopefully, Guthrie bought councillor Leanne Caron a bouquet of her favourite flowers since she was the proverbial Cassandra in the Official Plan drama. She was the one that directed council to make a statement saying that after years of feedback and compromise it was inappropriate for the provincial government to just re-write portions of the Official Plan on their own. It now seems like Calandra agrees.
Having said that this was also the week that Calandra told the opposition NDP to call “1-800-JAGMEET” to ask federal NDP leader Singh to cancel the carbon tax as an affordability measure. Global News reporter Colin D’Mello actually called “1-800-JAGMEET” and discovered it’s a phone sex line, which may not be what Calandra intended, but he was still right about the official plan thing.
Would that it be the only Freudian slip in the legislature this week.
On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford made the ill-advised move to go toe-to-toe with Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner on #GuelphFacts. As chronicled previously in this space, these face-offs are doomed to failure because whatever half-researched zinger that gets texted to the Premier mid-session is no match for someone that lives and works here.
“This government has wasted years failing to address the housing crisis, breaking all the rules, so a handful of wealthy well-connected insiders could cash in,” Schreiner said winding up a question about the provincial commitment to make the budgets of municipalities whole following cuts to charges and other in legislation like Bill 23.
Ford began with what I have to assume is a lie. “Mr. Speaker last night, I usually don't watch the news. I was flicking the channels.” Who channel surfs anymore?
“Mr. Green was on the show saying we need more housing. […] He actually had the nerve to stand up there and say we need more housing when Guelph has the slowest housing starts in the entire province, over 444 municipalities. Guelph voted against housing units for students across from Guelph university. Where was the member from Guelph? He never spoke up,” Ford replied.
First of all, “Mr. Green”? Priceless.
Second, I suppose it would be too ludicrous to suggest that the reason why Mr. Green … I mean, Mr. Schreiner, had nothing to say on specific housing and zoning applications is because he’s not, in fact, a member of Guelph City Council, the body that makes those decisions.
It’s also worth pointing out that Ford confused the application for the Days Inn site for an application for the old Royal Brock site, but since there are no Tim Hortons on either of those corners, I don’t expect the Premier to see the distinction. Anyway, Ford turned the question into a screed about why Schreiner wasn’t a team player, and by “team”, he means the government side of the House.
“[Schreiner]’s all about making sure he puts little rose bushes in, and that everything's hunky dory with no highways. You don't want to extend Highway #7, do you?” Ford said in what has to be one of the most bizarre flexes ever uttered in the Legislature. It’s worth noting too that Ford never came close to offering an explanation about when Ontario municipalities would be “made whole”.
Guthrie responded himself on Wednesday in a statement noting correctly that Guelph does not have the lowest housing starts in either Ontario or Canada. Far from it actually. And even if it were true, calling down Guelph council as “a bunch of left-wing lunatics” is hardly productive or insightful to the concerns Schreiner was raising. Perhaps Guthrie himself can take some solace that Ford thinks he’s a “good guy.”
Ultimately, this was probably a bad week for Ford to get shirty about the awesomeness of his agenda and the alleged crappiness of our local council. They were right, and he was wrong. And while Calandra seems cool throwing his predecessor under the bus he’s laid under for the last two months, there was a whole government apparatus that seemed to blindly go along with those decisions with no oversight.
In any event, we’re told all the time that cities are a creature of the province, and if the province doesn’t have its act together then that puts even more pressure on those city councils that are not completely masters of their own destiny and are receiving contradictory instructions from the people that are supposed to be directing them.
In other words, it was just another week at Queen’s Park.
