Sudbury mayor signs up for expanded powers to spur housing construction

Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre says he will go along with the province’s plan to boost the power of the province’s mayors to spur the construction of affordable housing.

“I’m going to sign on because I’m signing to the commitment to build the houses because there is financial incentives to do so, which is great for taxpayers,” said Lefebvre.

To receive the provincial incentive money, Sudbury needs to build about 3,800 new units within three years. Currently, Lefebvre said around 400 are being built annually, spurring the need to speed up construction.

“There are a lot of market forces that are out there that may impact this, but certainty for us as a municipality, what we’re trying to do is provide the incentives and direction to developers to help us address our housing crisis,” he said.

In North Bay, Coun. Tanya Vrebosch said she has concerns about the long-term effect of boosting mayoral power because of a lack of communication between the province and municipalities

“They said they were going to slowly roll it out and it wasn’t going to be anything,” Vrebosch said.

“We expected consultation prior to it. I don’t think the public asked for -- it’s not what the public wanted -- and maybe they would have made a different choice. Not just in North Bay but in other communities that this is being imposed on.”

She is worried that the new powers will mean city council will become more of a dictatorship than a democracy.

“If it’s a good idea and it has merit, that leader will be able to bring a majority of council towards that decision,” Vrebosch said.

“But again, this is being imposed on us and it’s something that I think is very scary thing.”

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said he is on record as saying that the stronger powers will not make much of a difference to his council.

Shoemaker said city councillors have a strong understanding of the need for housing and are working to develop local housing targets through a task force that is already in place.