TORONTO — Ontario's municipal affairs and housing minister is telling the city of Toronto that the province is launching a third-party audit of municipal finances to determine if the municipality will see any shortfall in revenue as a result of a provincial housing law.
The legislature passed a bill Monday that would, in part, freeze, reduce and exempt fees developers pay on certain builds such as affordable housing.
Those fees go to municipalities and are then used to pay for services to support new homes, such as road and sewer infrastructure and communities across the province have expressed concern that they will have to raise property taxes to fund those services.
But Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark has said municipalities have billions of development charge revenues in reserve, and he is now telling Toronto Mayor John Tory that the province is launching an audit of reserve funds and development charge administration.
Clark says if there is any impact to the city's ability to fund housing-related infrastructure and services due to the provincial law, Ontario is committed to ensuring Toronto is "made whole."
It is unclear if the audit and promise of funding extends to other municipalities as well.
Clark also told Tory that Ontario would cover up to one-third of the city's operating deficit for this year, which it estimates at $703 million.
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