Last year, Star readers identified reforming the development charge system as one of their top 10 big ideas. This week, we check in on what, if any, progress has been made.

A provincial bill making its way through Queen’s Park is promising change to the development charges system, but Toronto councillors are skeptical of its impact.

Every time a new building rises in the city, it affects the surrounding infrastructure. Sewage systems, water and electrical grids have to deal with increased demand. If the building is residential, it will also increase the number of people taking public transit or driving on local streets.

All these things cost the city money, so it charges a development fee each time it issues a building permit, to recoup the cost of the added strain on city infrastructure.

“The municipality is pushing the cost of building new infrastructure to accommodate new development onto the developer,” said Aaron Moore, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg who studied development charges extensively in Toronto.

The rules for how much a city can charge, and where it can spend the revenue, are outlined in Ontario’s 1997 Development Charges Act.

One critic of the current system is Councillor Kristin Wong-Tam, who represents the development-heavy ward of Toronto-Centre Rosedale. One issue she cites is the fact the current system lets developers pay only when the first building permit is issued, which can happen years after the city has approved the land for rezoning and started planning for growth in the area.

“The planning for growth … has to be done years in advance. We can’t wait until building permits are issued,” Wong-Tam said.

Bill 73, introduced by Municipal Affairs Minister Ted McMeekin, called the Smart Growth for Our Communities Act, would make many changes to the original Development Charges Act. Among them would be adding transit to the list of services that don’t qualify for a 10 per cent discount when their part is calculated in the charges.

But some councillors aren’t happy with the bill and say more could be done to revamp the system. Justin Di Ciano, who represents Ward 5, spoke against Bill 73 in a speech this month. He said that rather than being subject to provincial rules, Toronto should get its own development charges act, because of the unique challenges the city faces.

“We are so unique, being Canada’s largest city. To take an act to address all municipalities across Ontario is highly inadequate,” Di Ciano said.

In June, council passed a motion proposing about 30 changes to Bill 73. Wong-Tam said there’s been no response from the province so far.

“I’d hate to think the province is going to go through this charade of pretending to do something when they clearly haven’t addressed, specifically, the very legitimate concerns that the City of Toronto has,” Wong-Tam said.

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McMeekin said he’s received hundreds of proposals for changes in the bill, and he doesn’t recall the Toronto proposal specifically. He added that responses he’s gotten to the bill have been mostly positive.

“Where we can, we try to strike a balance. That balance will invariably provide some positive response … and in some cases perhaps not. That’s just the way government works,” he said.