August 20th, 2024
OTTAWA – Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) were pleased to take part in this year’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s (AMO) Conference in Ottawa along with municipal, regional, provincial and federal partners, as AMO celebrates 125 years. We welcomed the opportunity to listen and learn from our colleagues as well as advocate for the key priorities of Ontario’s biggest cities.
Joint Meeting with Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO)
On Sunday OBCM and MARCO held a joint meeting welcoming Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Hon. Paul Calandra as well as the Minister of Infrastructure, the Hon. Kinga Surma and Federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, the Hon. Sean Fraser. Each organization raised their key priorities and issues with the Ministers, and discussed possible ways to work together to tackle the growing humanitarian crisis on Ontario’s streets – recently estimated to include 234,000 unhoused people and 1400 encampments – spanning every community in this province.
Together with community partners, municipalities and regions have been working on solutions to address this crisis head on. While we have had some success, we cannot continue to tackle this crisis alone. Without proper resources, expertise and support from the other levels of government, this crisis will continue to grow at an alarming pace.
OBCM and MARCO also discussed key priorities for both organizations including, housing and housing enabling infrastructure, a new municipal fiscal review from both the provincial and federal governments, and changes to funding eligibility for the Building Faster Fund.
At the meeting we passed two motions including one on the homelessness, addictions and mental health crisis as well as on the criteria and accuracy of housing counts for the Building Faster Fund (Appendix A).
OBCM Delegations with Provincial Ministers
Throughout the conference OBCM’s member mayors met with several ministers to outline our priorities for their ministries including:
The SolveTheCrisis.ca campaign – a call on the provincial and federal government to tackle the humanitarian crisis unfolding on our streets. The homelessness, mental health and addictions crisis is growing, and municipalities cannot address this alone.
Municipal Finance Reform – OBCM has joined the call from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) calling on both the provincial and federal governments to create a new funding framework for municipalities. We are dealing with 21st Century problems, with 19th Century funding models.
Housing and Housing Enabling Infrastructure – in order to meet our shared housing goals municipalities need predictable long term, sustainable funding for much needed infrastructure to get homes built.
OBCM’s SolvetheCrisis.ca Campaign
OBCM’s solvethecrisis.ca campaign calls on the provincial and federal governments to step up and take action by calling on the province to create a ministry responsible for this issue as well as developing a taskforce with various stakeholders, to ensure the correct programs, funding and solutions are put in place for each community’s specific needs. We’ve asked residents to add their voice by visiting our solvethecrisis.ca campaign and have received thousands of messages of support from across the province as well as from many community and professional organizations over the last few days at the AMO Conference.
Provincial Government Announcements
During the conference the provincial government also made several announcements impacting municipalities. This included Health Minister the Hon. Sylvia Jones’ announcement of an investment of $378 million in 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs which will add up to 375 supportive housing units. We welcome these investments that OBCM has been advocating for including comprehensive treatment and preventative measures, supportive housing units and treatment beds. We hope to see more investments in these types of models in the future, as the need is growing, with an estimated 234,000 in Ontario who are unhoused. We will continue to advocate for the steps we have requested in our solvethecrisis.ca campaign including a single contact at the provincial government to tackle this issue, and an action table to develop a plan to solve the crisis for all municipalities.
Additionally the province also announced:
- The opening of applications for funding under the $400 million Housing-Enabling Core Servicing stream of the $1 billion Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program to build, maintain, and repair core assets such as municipal roads, bridges and culverts that will support the construction of new homes.
- The opening of the application process for the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund to help build and revitalize recreation and community facilities.
- The new Provincial Planning Statement (PPS) will help municipalities support growth by reducing and streamlining planning rules, simplifying approvals to build homes and eliminating duplication.
“Over the last few days we have been asking our government partners to listen to municipalities and our call to address the homelessness, mental health and addictions crisis across Ontario. Thousands of Ontario residents have joined our Solve the Crisis campaign, sharing their stories with us and asking the provincial and federal governments to act now. The only way to solve this is for all levels of government to come together, create a comprehensive plan and fund it appropriately. This is a humanitarian crisis that is happening on our streets, affecting municipalities and regions of all sizes across the province, and we cannot tackle this alone.”
- Marianne Meed Ward
Chair of OBCM and Mayor of Burlington
“Upper tier and single tier levels of government deliver much of the critical infrastructure needed to build new homes. We are also system services managers responsible for housing and homelessness. It is critically important to advance the need for sustainable, dedicated funding streams from the province on behalf of MARCO member municipalities at this year’s AMO conference.”
- Karen Redman
Chair of Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario and
Chair of the Region of Waterloo
About Ontario’s Big City Mayors
Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) is an organization that includes mayors of 29 single and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more, who collectively represent nearly 70 percent of Ontario’s population. OBCM advocates for issues and policies important to Ontario’s largest cities.
About Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario
Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) brings Ontario regional chairs and large single-tier mayors to discuss common issues of concern including provincial and federal matters. They work together to advocate for policy action and change on behalf of MARCO members. MARCO represents more than 9.7 million residents of Ontario.
Media Contacts
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Chair Michelle Baker, Executive Director
chair@obcm.ca michelle@obcm.ca
905-335-7777 647-308-6602
Kara McLean
Chief of Staff
MARCO Chair and Chair of Region of Waterloo
Appendix A
Motion Requesting that the Provincial Government take Action to Address the Growing Health and Homelessness Crisis
Motion Submitted By: Mayor Marianne Meed Ward (OBCM Chair) Karen Redman (MARCO Chair)
Whereas in 2022 Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) along with the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) called on the province for an emergency meeting to address the chronic homelessness, mental health, safety and addictions crisis overwhelming our communities; and
Whereas this crisis continues to grow with 3432 drug related deaths in Ontario in 2023 as well as over 1400 homeless encampments across Ontario communities in 2023; and
Whereas the province has provided additional funding for mental health, addictions and homelessness programs, the funding does not adequately address the growing crisis and the financial and social impact on municipalities and regions across the province; and
Whereas municipalities are stepping up and working with community partners to put in place community-specific solutions to address this crisis, but municipalities lack the expertise, capacity, or resources to address these increasingly complex health care and housing issues; and
Whereas there is no provincial lead focused on this crisis leading to unanswered questions, and a lack of support to manage the increasing needs of those who are unhoused.
Therefore, be it resolved that Ontario’s Big City Mayors and the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario call on the province to officially make Homelessness a Health Priority;
AND that the provincial government acknowledge the Humanitarian Crisis that Ontario is facing as the numbers of unhoused individuals and those suffering with mental health & addictions grows exponentially;
AND appoint a responsible ministry and Minister with the appropriate funding and powers as a single point of contact to address the full spectrum of housing needs as well as mental health, addictions and wrap around supports.
AND request that the provincial government strike a task force with broad sector representatives including municipalities, regions, healthcare, first responders, community services, the business community and the tourism industry to develop a Made in Ontario Action Plan;
AND that this provincial task force reviews current programs developed by municipalities, regions and community partners that have proven successful in our communities, to ensure that solutions can be implemented quickly and effectively to tackle this crisis.
Motion Requesting that the Provincial Government Change the Criteria for Municipalities and Regions to Qualify for the Building Faster Fund
Motion Moved By: David West, Mayor of Richmond Hill
Whereas Ontario is in a housing crisis and municipalities and regions across the province are working hard to do our part in achieving the province’s goal of constructing 1.5 million new homes by 2031; and
Whereas Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) and the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) remain fully committed to working collaboratively with all levels of government and partners to resolve the current housing crisis and we are especially interested in seeing a significant portion of new housing being more affordable to more people; and
Whereas the Provincial government launched the Building Faster Fund (BFF) in 2023 which was intended to incentivize municipalities by awarding funding based on performance against provincial housing targets; and
Whereas regions are not eligible to receive funding from BFF; and
Whereas the funding awarded under BFF is based on criteria beyond the control of municipalities given that it relies solely on counting housing starts through the number of foundations poured, which is outside of a municipalities’ control and jurisdiction. Municipalities have within their control the approval of housing NOT the building of housing; and
Whereas of the 50 municipalities currently assigned housing targets 24 (or 48%) were ineligible to receive the first round of BFF funding (based on 2023 numbers).
Whereas this year (2024) to date 40 of the 50 municipalities are either below or well below 40% of their target which could mean approximately 82% will not meet their target this year and therefore won’t receive their share of the BFF funding – funding that is critical to be able to build the housing-enabling infrastructure needed to support new homes.
Therefore, be it resolved that Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) and the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) request that the criteria for receiving funding under the Building Faster Fund be amended to achieve fairness and effective incentivization of the actions that are actually under municipal jurisdiction so that property taxpayers can receive their fair share of critical funding to support the development of community-enabling and housing-enabling infrastructure;
AND that the province review the criteria for eligibility so that it may include regions across Ontario;
AND we also call on the province to officially acknowledge the need to revise the metrics of evaluation for the BFF in consultation and collaboration with both municipal leaders and stakeholders in the development community;
AND be it further resolved that the provincial government, through the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing as well as the Office of the Premier, meet with the municipal sector to negotiate amendments to the BFF criteria that will result in positive outcomes for all parties; those seeking housing, the building community, and municipalities.