It wasn’t unprecedented — but it was a rare move — when councillors from Brampton and Caledon walked out of a regional council meeting at the start of June, forcing proceedings to halt.
The decision to abandon the meeting was made by the two municipalities over a motion Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish brought to slash development charges in half for more than a year to spur building.
Parrish said the move was necessary to restart new home construction, which has almost completely stopped; Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Caledon Mayor Annette Groves said it was financially irresponsible.
Heading into the next council meeting two weeks later on June 26, it looked like Parrish would bring her motion again and her colleagues would walk out again, leaving the region paralyzed.
Instead, after a lengthy recess where staff and councillors passed compromises back and forth, a very lightly modified version of the motion was allowed to pass.
A news release from the Region of Peel proclaimed the move both “landmark” and “historic” — offering developers a 50 per cent discount on the fees they pay to build until November 2026.
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But what changed between the June 12 walkout and the mutual congratulations passed around the council table two weeks later? Parrish and Brown say it was a delicate negotiation with the promise of more than $1 billion from Housing Minister Rob Flack.
The day before the meeting — as Brown and Groves worried about the cost of lost revenue from developers — Flack wrote to the region to encourage them to pass the development charges cut.
“I appreciate the Region’s proactive approach to reviewing and reducing their municipal DCs to support building more homes faster across Peel Region in a way that works for all municipalities within the Region,” a June 25 letter from the housing minister said.
It included the promise of $1.3 billion from the Building Ontario Fund to be handed over as part of the Ford government’s plan to create a public utility company in the region, taking the responsibility away from councillors in Peel Region.
That money can be used to offset the costs of losing control of water and wastewater utilities, and to cover lost development charges, the ministry said.
The motion passed by Peel Region councillors says that if by October the funding from the province looks like it won’t show up, the development charges cut will be axed.
The promise of more than $1 billion proved to be the key to unsticking Peel Region’s warring mayors.
A spokesperson for the Brampton mayor said having the promise of funding written down and on the record allowed him to vote in favour of the development charges cut.
“He requested their proposals in written form and says the letter was impactful in achieving a compromise at the regional meeting today,” they said in response to questions. “Mayor Brown wanted assurances that any concessions to the development industry wasn’t at the expense of critical regional infrastructure.”
Parrish also said she felt the housing minister had helped to steer the council to being able to cut charges.
She said she was confident developers would leap at the cut of development charges and start building again.
“We have 11,000 units in letters of commitment,” Parrish said. “They’re putting up, they want to build … they’re at the point where they can build now as long as these two big fees stay out of the picture.”
Flack’s office said the $1.3 billion coming to Peel Region would be used as “financing” to help with the utility transfer, which is a move they hope will also phase out development charges on water and wastewater infrastructure.
“We will continue to ensure Peel Region has the tools and support they need to build more new and affordable homes,” a spokesperson said.
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