MILTON, ON
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Conservation Halton’s President and CEO, Hassaan Basit, responds to the Province of Ontario announcement today, introducing the More Homes Built Faster Act, with the scope of advancing the province’s plan to address the housing shortage by building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years.
“The changes announced today are mostly pointing CAs in a direction they were already going. The emphasis on core mandate was very clearly defined by the multi-stakeholder CA Working group last year and continues to be broadly supported by all CAs and key stakeholders. So, while today’s announcement doesn’t concern me on a broad level at this point in time – given that this is the first we have seen these proposals – the next set of announcements and the ones after that do, especially if the gaps identified by the working group are not addressed in the coming months and if we aren’t given the opportunity to meaningfully engage in the process of changes like we were last time. This work is needed to clarify scope of work, delivery standards, and provide a clear line of sight on how to support the housing strategy and CAs’ core mandate. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to modernize Section 28 of the CA Act and stakeholders are keen to collaborate with the province in doing so.
The ball is in their court and it’s critical that the province work with us in this process with defined goals that reduce duplication and confusion when it comes to community planning. We need to ensure we move beyond politics and work collaboratively to design real solutions for actual problems. The goal is to ensure conservation authorities’ work is effective, focused and streamlined but most importantly, that it continues to evolve to keep our communities safe from hazards, while ensuring support for the Provincial housing strategy to address the housing supply. With any proposed changes like this that affect our organization, we will be working over the next few days to better understand what this will mean for us going forward.”
– Hassaan Basit, President and CEO, Conservation Halton
Conservation Halton is the community based environmental agency that protects, restores, and manages the natural resources in its watershed. The organization has staff that includes ecologists, land use planners, engineers, foresters and educators, along with a network of volunteers, who are guided by a Board of Directors comprised of municipally elected and appointed citizens. Conservation Halton is recognized for its stewardship of creeks, forests and Niagara Escarpment lands through science-based programs and services. Learn more at conservationhalton.ca