A coalition of Ontario developers has written to three levels of government to ask for a reduction in taxes on new housing, saying it will pass on those savings dollar for dollar to homebuyers.
Construction workers build new row homes in Ottawa on June 25. A new coalition of Ontario developers have written to three levels of government to ask for a reduction in taxes and, in exchange, will pass on those savings dollar for dollar to homebuyers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
"We came to the realization that something's got to change and we started thinking about creative ways to bring government to the table to have an honest conversation and find solutions together," Matt Young, president of Republic Developments who is spearheading the coalition, said in an interview. The letter warns of job losses in the home construction industry and a hurting economy should nothing change.
"Housing is unviable today," he said. "You can't sell it low enough to get sales and still make money and if you can't make money or can't meet a certain margin, banks won't finance your projects, which means all projects for the most part are pretty much stalled." The Association of Municipalities of Ontario estimated the changes would leave municipalities with a $10-billion hole over 10 years. The province later walked many of those changes back, but the association says they still represent a $2-billion hole over the same time frame.
"It is really unique that everybody has the same conception of the problem and is committed to that same goal of achieving housing affordability and that's an opportunity that we see that we can really kind of collectively take advantage of," she said.
Waterloo residents are frustrated over the death of a wild deer that had been living in their neighbourhood, after repeated requests to help the animal were ignored.Damaged books and bits of wood littered the ground on Wednesday after a free little library in Kitchener was destroyed.Workers voted to ratify a new four-year collective agreement that eliminates the two-tier wage system, they said discriminated against new hires and existing workers with limited seniority.
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