Ontario’s Big City Mayors held its annual general meeting in downtown Burlington on Friday, with Mayor Marianne Meed Ward chairing the event.
The meeting focused on housing, mental health and homelessness.
The goal of this meeting was to discuss the biggest issues facing municipalities across Ontario and share ideas on what’s working and what’s not.
When it comes to housing, building more fourplexes did come up.
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Meed Ward says the provincial and federal governments are listening to municipalities. She says both governments included big spending in the recent budgets.
“We have seen billions of dollars in investments with critical infrastructure, housing programs, and homelessness and mental health assistance,” said Meed Ward.
One of the big agenda items today was housing. Premier Doug Ford has said he won’t force municipalities to allow fourplexes on residential land. But some Ontario Big City Mayors say it’s already happening.
“We have already approved that four units as of right in Burlington. And we just heard that if only 18% of municipalities did that, it would build 2 million new ones. It’s a way to bring gentle density,” said Meed Ward.
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“It was a unanimous vote,” said St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe, “we wanted to see fourplexes, and as of right now I know that is happening in other communities”
Also on the agenda today was mental health and homelessness, ‘what’s working and what more needs to be done’.
“I think everyone knows homeless and opioid epidemic that is going on in our communities, and it’s helpful for all of us to get together and figure out what everyone is doing, what’s working what’s not working,” said Mayor Siscoe.
“I know I’m walking away with a couple of thoughts, with things we want to start doing in Niagara, but that’s one of the benefits of this conference,” said Mayor Siscoe.
Premier Ford also spoke at the conference on Friday along with all three provincial opposition leaders, it was an opportunity for municipalities to tell the province exactly what they want.
