More construction cranes are at work in Toronto than anywhere else in North America. There’s scarcely a patch of land in the Greater Toronto Area that someone doesn’t want to build something on.

But, according to Doug Ford’s government, the situation is so dire that it just had to come to the rescue with legislation to “create a more competitive business environment.”

To that end, the province is usurping the right of municipalities to decide how to collect funds from developers to pay for the costs that come with new development from roads, transit and sewers to libraries, community centres and parks.

It has created a “community benefits charge” that lumps together the multiple tools Toronto currently has to provide for the needs of a growing city and create the vibrant neighbourhoods that people cherish. The Ford government has determined that a one-and-done charge amounting to 15 per cent of a development site’s land value is the better way to go.

Sure, it’ll be simpler. Developers like that.

But development, especially in existing built-up areas, is rarely simply so it doesn’t necessarily mean it will make for better projects or better communities.

While municipalities are still scrambling to figure out exactly what this new system will mean to them financially, it will almost certainly be a better deal for developers. The province has no reason to do this otherwise.

A quick recap on their other legislative changes shows that it is developers — not the environment, not residents and certainly not the long-term needs of municipalities — that have been front and centre in their thinking.

The government revived the developer-friendly OMB rules. It gutted endangered species habitat protections, which critics say lets developers “pay to slay.” It lowered housing density targets, allowing for more of the sprawl that developers love to build but saddles communities with expensive-to-service neighbourhoods that have such low density they can’t even support a regular bus service.

And in January it came out with an unbelievably terrible proposal to let developers hire their own professional inspectors to certify that their buildings are safe and up to code with the specific goal of speeding up approvals.

So it’s no wonder that Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, whose midtown ward faces some of the greatest development pressures in the city, is bracing for the worst. And the associations representing developers, which support the changes, are clearly expecting the best.

“The community benefits charge looks like another Doug Ford giveaway to his developer supporters, at the expense of the people of Ontario and their communities,” says Matlow.

Based on what we know so far, it’s hard to disagree with that.

The government also claims its changes will “help fix the affordable housing crisis,” but there’s absolutely no evidence it will do anything of the sort.

The province is being prescriptive in what municipalities can charge developers. But it hasn’t included any mechanism to ensure developers pass on any savings in the form of cheaper homes or lower rents.

The government is continuing its disturbing habit of coming up with an outcome and then papering over how it got there. It passed the legislation to make these changes last June and on Friday it released its plan to cap the charge to developers at 15 per cent. And now it says it hopes to hear from municipalities in its March-long consultation process.

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The number of cranes in Toronto shows just how extensive and profitable development is here already. With all the Ford government’s changes developers stand to make even greater profits. While the people who live here now and into the future will either have fewer services than they need or be forced to pay more for them than they should.

As we’ve said before: more for developers, less for residents. Welcome to Doug Ford’s Ontario.

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