Unlike the majority of cities in Canada, including Calgary, the Windsor Ontario City Council said no to a bribe from the federal government’s $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) which was designed by the Trudeau government to supposedly increase housing supply by changing zoning bylaws to legalize the construction of multi-family homes in areas zoned for only single-family homes. The feds had earmarked $30 million for the City of Windsor, but the federal oversight of rules and regulations moved council to vote no, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told the National Post. “They were just hell-bent on putting forward this really left-principled version of what housing should be,” said Dilkens. “We basically walked away from $30 million because we refused to succumb or be co-opted into something we felt was bad for the community.” A Windsor Liberal MP at the time, Irek Kusmierczyk, urged council to reconsider because the feds were only asking for “gentle density.” Dilkens says the feds should butt out of municipal business. “It’s not so gentle if you find yourself living next door to a new four-plex and you bought your house based on the community’s single-family residential character,” he said. “We did it in our way, because there’s no one who knows their community better, no level of government that knows their community better, than the local council.” .Well, that may be true in Windsor, but apparently, not in Calgary. The majority of the Calgary City Council who approved city-wide blanket upzoning obviously had no idea of the consequences of its decision to take $228.5 million in HAF’s taxpayer money and run, despite a huge clue that even an elementary school class would recognize. When you have a public hearing and 75% of those attending the hearing tell you to not approve something, that’s not just a clue, it’s an order from the bosses: Calgarians. The result of approving blanket upzoning in Calgary has been a massive infringement on Calgarians’ property rights, a drop in home equity, and a disruption of their daily lives. Blanket upzoning was supposed to expedite adding housing supply, but the opposite is true. A line-up has formed at the counter of the suburban development appeal board (SDAB) at city hall. Calgarians are filing affidavits of opposition to multi-family home permits, some of which are for buildings as high as six storeys, with as many as eight homes inside, to be built next to their single-family homes in neighbourhoods across the city. The line up has, ironically, stopped smaller, inner-city developers from starting construction until the appeals have been considered and have added costs to the construction process because of the delays. .If the Calgary city councillors, including Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who voted in favour of blanket upzoning had the foresight of the City of Windsor’s mayor and councillors, a lot of time and money would have been saved and legal entanglements avoided. Calgary’s government is quick to give itself a slap on the back for approving a record number of residential building permits, most of which are in new communities and not because of the implementation blanket zoning, according to a new report from the Calgary Real Estate Board. What Calgary’s government needs is not a slap on the back, but a kick in the ass. Calgarians, put on your boots on election day, October 20.
