Local PC candidate Graydon Smith is accusing the Greens of treating rural Ontario like cities and trying to force through changes that municipalities may not want.
Smith was referring to a private member’s bill introduced by Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner in 2023.
Bill 156 would amend the Planning Act requiring municipalities to change their Official Plans to authorize “in areas of settlement” up to four residential units in a detached house, semi-detached house or rowhouse across Ontario as well as multi-unit residential buildings of up to four stories.
The bill also states, “An official plan shall contain policies that authorize, in areas of settlement, midrise housing developments ranging from six to 11 stories on major streets, including along transit corridors, where sufficient sewage and water capacity exists.”
The Act would also be amended to ensure that there are no appeals to the policies, with the exception of appeals by the Minister.
“Unlike the Green Party whose plan for housing assumes every rural and northern community should be treated like a big city, our PC team knows that municipalities know best and we need to give them the tools to build more homes that are appropriate for their communities instead of forcing them to build massive towers where they don’t make sense,” said Smith via an email statement.
“That is why we introduced the new Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, the Housing-Enabling Core Servicing Stream which together will enable municipalities to build over 200,000 more homes across the province. We are investing $50 million into the District of Muskoka and $14.6 million into Parry Sound and McDougall to enhance critical municipal infrastructure. We will continue to work hand in hand with municipalities, who know their communities and know where it makes sense to build homes, to ensure we are ready to welcome families to our community not just now but for years to come,” he stated, adding that Parry Sound Muskoka deserves a strong government that will continue to support its municipal partners by giving them the funds and the tools they need “to build appropriate housing for families in our community, and that is exactly what the Ontario PCs will deliver.”
In response, the Greens issued the following statement: “We are in a worsening housing crisis, and the Ontario Greens are committed to building more homes so people can afford to live in the communities they love.
In order to build more homes while protecting forests and nature, we need to build within existing built-up areas (instead of sprawling out and paving over forests), which is what our bill focuses on,” according to the email.
“The policy of allowing for buildings ranging from 6-11 storeys is not applicable in small towns and communities but rather applies to transit corridors and major streets in larger urban centres where residential access is not the primary purpose.”
The Greens also plan on removing development charges on homes, condos and apartment units under 2,000 square feet that are built within urban boundaries. They said they would create an Affordable Communities Fund to cover municipalities’ housing infrastructure costs and remove the Land Transfer Tax for first-time homebuyers.
“By building more homes and getting rid of the fees that are hiking up purchase costs, we’ll save the average first-time homebuyer $150,000 and without sprawling onto our farms, forests and wetlands,” states a release issued by the Greens on February 3.
“It’s time to bring some generational fairness back into the housing market,” added Ontario Greens Deputy Leader and candidate for Kitchener Centre Aislinn Clancy in the release.
The Greens say their First-Time Homebuyers Plan would bring down costs and build 2 million homes within urban boundaries.
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The PCs can slam all they want because they sure aren’t setting an example. Even the ‘strong mayor’ plan isn’t getting shingles on rooves and asphalt on parking lots. Even though it negates a good percentage of the public vote.
In May, 2022 the PCs announced a plan to build 1.5 million housing units in 10 years. I imagine that would have included single dwellings, duplex, 4 plex and 11 story units, whatever. Just get a roof over people’s’ heads. In Oct. of 2023 that 1.5 million was to be built by 2032. In any case, since 2011 Ontario has had from 60,000 to 100,000 units per year. At this rate we’ll need to have another look at the math in 2027.
Maybe we could rent out the 100,000 plus units that sit empty all winter long. It seems incongruous that so many can want mostly a warm place to stay, but the door is locked.
It makes MPP Smith’s comment on the value of $200.00 as being “a crucial step to help residents” incongruous, laughable, and sad all at the same time. The person at the pool in Arizona and the person who maybe never got their $200.00 because they don’t have an address may feel differently. Or maybe one could buy a warmer sleeping bag. Circumstance can alter perceptions.
And while I’m wondering: in the long term, what “crucial step” does our MPP think $200.00 will or can make?
T. Francis,
The Green Party changed its policy on the fly after realizing that their leader’s signature housing policy is anathema to vast portions of Parry Sound-Muskoka. This move is cynical and reeks of pure political expediency. It tells you a lot about who they are.
It took 2 years for them to determine that it applies to settlement areas over 100,000! That’s because they got called out in Parry Sound-Muskoka.
The Greens are urbanists who don’t and will never understand small town Ontario.
Make no mistake. They want 11 storey towns dotting our main roads. And they want each home in this riding to be able to be divided into 4 separate units. That’s their policy. It’s been that way for years……until someone actually took a look and called them out.
They’re embarrassed by their own leader’s terrible piece of legislation.
The Green Party’s platform is available at the link below and says, “Update provincial planning laws to prezone for missing middle and mid-rise housing ranging from 6-11 storeys on transit corridors and major streets in large urban centres with populations over 100,000.”
Perhaps that will put an end to the ridiculous comments (especially by MPP Smith) that Muskoka communities would be forced to build massive towers under the Green plan.
And to MPP Smith: In a Hunters Bay Radio interview, you said, “the $200 taxpayer rebate for eligible Ontarians is a cruicial step to help residents.” Were the Conservatives, and you as our MPP, unable to find a more crucial way to spend $3 billion, perhaps to support housing, in the Ontario communities that you represent?
https://files.ontariogreens.ca/platform/gpo-platform-en.pdf
Allan Markle, the only delirium is to be found in people who have misplaced confidence in environmentalist radicals without reading the fine print. You clearly haven’t.
I’m not sure as to what needs to change with our local planning but something needs to give. Whether the Green Party’s plan has a few bugs or not, it can’t be much different from the PC plan which is ——what?
There are a lot of hysterical comments to this piece. I’m particularly fond of the one “11 story apartment buildings lining both sides of the highway from Gravenhurst through to Huntsville.” If you are serious, breathe slowly and allow the delirium to pass.
I agree that the small towns of Ontario are under assault. Some certainly more than Huntsville. But I feel that the town I grew up in is being plowed under and paved over. Ask MPP Smith what his plan is to rectify this. The Green Party had nothing to do with creating what we have now.
There was the mention that councils should decide policy. I agree, though I question the credibility of some councils. And the power that the Ontario Land Tribunal wields cancels a lot of council decisions. Ask MPP Smith what his plan is to remediate that problem.
People worry about population density. For me the town is growing without a plan. Seemingly being pushed thither and yon by government and developer. Does MPP Smith have any ideas as to what can be done to correct or slow this?
And as for the comment the Green party has no chance of forming a government. Maybe so, but it’ll do it’s best to scare the crap out of our local PCs. And they can rest smug in the realisation that they had nothing to do with any of the problems that we have here. Now. The PCs have had eight or so years to formulate a plan and housing isn’t popping up.
Guess it takes a long time for these PCs to come up with an idea. Here’s hoping it’ll be a good one. But don’t hold your breath. Nothing happening yet.
It’s crystal clear, folks. As per Bill 156, “an official plan ‘shall’ contain policies” that allow for these six to 11 storey residence structures. No ands, ifs, or buts about it!
It’s basically the Greens telling us that they know better than individual municipalities on how to meet their own housing goals. This is careless at best, but at worst it demonstrates an arrogance unbefitting of a party that is vying to present itself as a legitimate option for governance.
Beyond that, it’s worth pointing out that this bill would also work to compromise the unique character of many of Muskoka’s towns. Others here have drawn comparisons with Barrie, and I think there’s something to that.
Keep Huntsville, well, Huntsville!
Why the angst? Because it’s a tight race and the Green Party’s leader and candidate must be stopped if this is what they want for our communities.
4 units per house is NUTS! This ain’t Copenhagen or the Bronx. Can you imagine someone dividing their house 4 ways in downtown Huntsville or out in the ‘burbs’ like the new stuff off Muskoka Rd 3?
High rise towers on King William, Highway 60, etc would be awful.
Anyone who thinks this is appropriate, like Matt Richter, has ZERO business being anywhere near government.
Wake up, Green Party! Or better yet, go back to Toronto! It’ll be a long, cold ride on your bicycles.
Why all the angst? The greens will never be in a position to make good on anything they promise – they would need to actually WIN an election, and the last time I checked they are a long, long, long way from achieving that. Currently 1 seat in the legislature.
The Green Party was a one trick pony 20 years ago and have long since become irrelevant. They are just grasping at straws now and show no ability to understand the real needs of small towns in Ontario.
“Two million homes”…omg, seriously?
The Green Party plan for housing would ruin Parry Sound and Muskoka as we know it!
Having 6-11 storey buildings in the downtowns of Parry Sound, Bracebridge, Huntsville, and Gravenhurst is not what cottage country is. We need housing all across the province, but each region is different and a blanket approach from the province isn’t the answer.
Municipal governments are elected by the residents that live there and they should be the ones to shape their own communities, not be forced into something they don’t want.
There is also the increased costs to municipalities for new fire trucks and training for 11-storey buildings. It would cost municipal tax payers millions!
I believe in density that makes sense. But this does not make sense for Parry Sound-Muskoka. I’ve heard loud and clear from fellow residents that high towers just don’t fit with the scope of what our communities need. Yes we need housing, but we need smart and careful planning to make that happen.
And what’s scary about this plan is the powers it takes away from local council to decide what type of development works best. Even if this plan came through, would there be parameters in place that 100% guarantees these tall buildings will not be built in places like out downtown main streets? I’m not sure it would.
Having said all of this though, we need continued investments in our communities up here and I just don’t think if we will continue to get that if our next MPP is not in sitting government.
Thank you Graydon Smith for your commitment to our area. We need to continue working WITH our municipalities, NOT against them. Stripping local councils of planning power is outrageous. I agree, we need homes built, but this is not the way. We do not need the Green Party’s big city agenda here. Also, 64.6 Million to local infrastructure is amazing! Us locals thank you.
Minister Smith, your government has had eight years to develop and implement a meaningful housing plan! Where is the affordable housing that you and your government promised and never delivered? It’s time for real change.
I have absolutely no interest in seeing our beautiful communities turn into another version of Barrie. Not to mention that taking power away from our elected municipal officials in favour of a blanket housing policy is undemocratic. No thanks!
I clicked the link and read the document.
They want condo towers and multiple rental units per house. It’s clear as day.
This would be terrible for Muskoka. Let the councils decide what’s best. DO NOT remove their ability to approve/disapprove major projects like this.
I don’t want a condo tower at the site of the old Empire, as a previous commenter noted.
The Greens have seemingly lost their marbles.
Your views are as misleading as you are, and I will pray for you as you require God’s guidance!
Well. The conservatives have been in power for several years now, and I’ve seen no real movement on affordble housing with access to public transportation.
Its pretty clear in the Doppler item that the Greens are not proposing 6-11 storey condos on our Mainstreet or our highways, but discouraging low density residential and other sprawl developments taking over the countryside- forests, wetlands and farms. Their proposal to remove the Land Transfer Tax for first time home buyers and removal of development charges for units under 2000 square feet may help make housing affordable for many.I think that our own Huntsville council would like to encourage increased residential density in rural areas- with .4 hectares lots.
Graydon Smith’s statement that the PC’s want to help municipalities with necessary infrastructure costs is nice but it seems as if the provincially appointed Ontario Land Tribunal often overrides municipal and community concerns in favour of developers, so I am wondering who is in charge.
Did I read this correctly?
By the Green Party’s platform we will have 11 story apartment buildings lining both sides of the highway, from Gravenhurst through to Huntsville because it’s a transit corridor, this makes no sense!
The District of Muskoka has and should remain in control of what gets built & where. Municipalities have been good stewards of their communities for decades.
The Green Party can promise absolutely anything because they have zero chance of governing Ontario.
I’ve read the Green’s housing policies in great detail. They are nothing short of an assault on the small towns of this province.
They’re backtracking now, trying to save face in rural Ontario.
But they’ve been very clear:
1) Strip councils of planning power.
2) Build 6-11 story towers on “Main Streets” across Ontario
3) Allow the sub-dividing of residential homes into 4 units.
4) Fourplexes allowed everywhere
We need more homes but this is the worst possible way to do it. It’ll destroy our communities.
11 storey towers on Highway 11, 60, 118, etc is insane. Four units per house in quiet residential neighbourhoods is maybe even crazier.
Turning Huntsville into Barrie is not a solution to anything.
Imagine an 11 storey monstrosity at the old Empire hotel on Main St in Huntsville… appalling.
Why is Matt Richter and the Green Party so insistent on ruining our beautiful lives in Parry Sound Muskoka? I thought they were all for preserving our way of life… guess not.
Also, Let’s not forget about their plan to ban Natural Gas to homes… I will freeze to death, but do not worry, at least there will be massive 11 storey eye sores throughout the region. Thanks, but no thanks.
It looks like Matt Richter is comfortable turning Huntsville and Bracebridge into Barrie, complete with eleven story apartments. This is entirely out of step with the claim that the greens wish to preserve the natural beauty of muskoka. Urban intensification will only destroy muskoka and turn it into another cookie cutter suburb.
That Green bill actually makes a lot of sense. The last thing we need is what we are doing right now: urban sprawl and the creation of huge, inefficient, and expensive homes on acreages and in town subdivisions. The reality is that we need to increase population density unless we want to keep on paving paradise. Nobody loves the idea of row houses or multi-unit residential buildings – but that is what we need. And that is what most people can afford.
Huntsville and Bracebridge have transit corridors. Thus, it is disingenuous when the Greens say that 6-11 story buildings will not be built in Muskoka.
The greens want massive urban intensification in Muskoka, something that will destroy the richness and uniqueness of our famous natural beauty.
Not really in tune with Richter’s message, is it?
But remember, he can promise you absolutely anything without any consequences, as the Greens have no chance of governing. A vote for Richter is a wasted vote. Plain and simple.