Most people could care less about city planning unless they get stuck in traffic on the 410 or they grumble that everything always seems to be overcrowded. Most folks rely on and trust city council to look after the people’s interest in planning a livable city. But that’s about to change! Bill 108, More Homes More Choice, became law on June 6 and that statute may very well affect everybody’s pocketbook and the way Bramptonians think a city should develop.

MHMC (Bill 108) is essentially a new planning vehicle that amends 13 Acts, not always in a good way. Brampton asked for more time to discuss the effects More Homes More Choice (MHMC) will have on us, but no deal. June 1 was the deadline. MHMC changes how Brampton will deal with developers. Brampton staff warned that it will have serious impact on Bramptonians.

The provincial government said that More Homes More Choice will produce more homes giving people more choice. No doubt that is laudable goal but Brampton staff reported on May 9 that MHMC was, “unlikely to achieve its stated goals” because there are “30,000 units of various residential types that are approved … where the owner has not undertaken the work required to complete final registration or construction.” That means that developers are sitting on 30,000 units now and Bill 108 will help them add more. Who’s in charge of the Chicken Coop? It sure looks like the fox (the developers)!

Development charges will be replaced with Community Benefits Charges determined, not by conditions here, but by an outside authority. The CBC will be based on the percentage of the value of the land not on the cost of providing services. Development charges were previously levied for hard services like roads and utilities and soft services like parks, recreation centers and libraries. CBC will only pay for a select set of hard services.

Growth pays for growth! That’s the planning tool Brampton has used for 45 years. Bill 108 changes that. Now the people of Brampton will be paying the cost of growth. If Brampton figures it needs soft services in a new subdivision or neighbourhood, all of us will pay or not, for those recreation centers or libraries. New neighbourhoods may not get the same services and amenities as those built before Bill 108. We are 636,000 people now and by 2040 we’ll be close to a million people. Bill 108 doesn’t guarantee population numbers. There are lots of green fields left to develop and the bottom line is that this law is great for developers and bad for the taxpayers.

To top it all off, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal is amended by this statute to be the final arbitrator on appeals from the developers. The LPAT now has the resurrected powers of the OMB and 3rd party appeals are severely affected by these new powers. Brampton will not be in charge of development. A tribunal picked by the provincial government will dictate our future. The city report is clear: staff believes there will be a lot more appeals by developers.

Bill 108 only took 13 days from first reading to passage in the legislature. Although this Bill was rushed through the legislature, it obviously has been on the backburner for a long time … a boon to the developers. Growth pays for growth is gone and, in its place, More Homes More Choice allows developers to build without concern about the future of this city.

Where were Brampton’s Conservative MPPs, while all of this was going down? Brampton’s recommendations on MHMC, all 52 of them, were cogent, respectful and hit the mark. Too bad no one at Queen’s Park was listening!

Terry Miller is a longtime Brampton resident and former Peel Region and Brampton city councillor. The Scene column appears weekly in the Guardian.