Improving transparency, monitoring infrastructure development, and creating incentives for developers are the goals of a review of water allocation presented at Planning on 20 August. 

It’s been a long time coming. 

A review was to be presented to Council last year, but Premier Ford’s Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, amended the Municipal Act to allow municipalities to create policies to allocate and reallocate water and sewage capacity within the service area. 

While the County already had a policy, it needed more time to review the impact of the legislation.

“We’re finally in a position to bring that back for your consideration,” said Sarah Viau, Director of Corporate and Legislative Services.

Introduced in 2010, the policy was “an environmentally and fiscally sound approach to the construction and allocation of the County’s water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure.”

“This was a very forward-thinking municipality,” said Ms. Viau. 

The provisions introduced under Bill 185 allow municipalities to create systems to track water supply and sewage servicing, and develop criteria to determine allocation, transfer, and reallocation. 

The amendment takes away some of Council’s authority to make decisions outside the scope of the policy. Further, decisions cannot be appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Use it or Lose It

The draft policy includes important “use it or lose it” language to prevent tying up capacity in stalled developments. The County could revoke water and wastewater capacity from a developer if it is not used within three years. 

It also introduces scoring criteria to achieve affordable housing priorities. “Council may prioritize capacity allocation assignments to development applications that include a meaningful number of affordable housing units, that will contribute to meeting the County’s affordable housing policies.”

In a comment from the audience, Dorothy Bothwell presented findings from a review of other municipal  policies, and recommended exploring how Development Charges and credits can be incorporated into the policy.  

“A number of these municipalities have extensively gone into these agreements with front end or development charge credit agreements,” said Ms. Bothwell.

Ms. Bothwell also suggested incorporating a climate change lens into its allocation criteria. 

“We are very much on the same page,” Ms. Viau noted. “I researched the same municipalities.”

“I looked at this red line version as a first rough draft,” said Councillor Phil St-Jean, adding, “We truly do need to have a use it or lose it clause in there.”

Staff will bring a report, and revised draft policy incorporating comments from Council and the public, to a future meeting of Council.