Supporting development a focus of Sudbury mayor

Greater Sudbury's mayor wants supporting development to be a priority for the city as he looks to create a new committee of council.

Mayor Paul Lefebvre recently announced that he'll be creating a committee that looks at supporting the city's policies and processes around both residential and non-residential development.

"It's about trying to attract more businesses here and we need more residential development so how can we ensure that we have the best practices here in Greater Sudbury,” he said.

“Looking around the province, best practices when it comes to municipal bylaws, investments and when it comes to permitting processes as soon as we can."

The idea comes amid a pledge by Ontario Premier Doug Ford to build 1.5 million homes in the province in the next decade. While a lot has recently been said about supporting development in Toronto, Ottawa and the Greenbelt, there hasn't been as much revealed publicly about northeastern Ontario.

"The province right now is dealing with those special powers in Toronto and Ottawa but I don't think we need that here,” said Lefebvre.

“Basically we have a council that works together, that has the same eye on the same direction, in trying to make our city the most attractive - the most business-friendly that it can be to create those jobs and opportunities here."

Lefebvre is looking to have Sudbury take the lead on a situation in seeing what it can do to improve itself. He told CTV News he has a good working relationship with the province and remains committed to working with the provincial government.

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City leaders have not been shy in recent years about talking about expanding the tax base, including the mayor. Recently council missed its own property tax goal of 3.7%.

"It's spurring revenue, it's growing our tax base. If you make it easier for people who have capital and they want to make those investments on the residential side or the commercial side, we have to be ready for that," he said.

"I see and we feel that there's a lot of momentum in northeastern Ontario, critical minerals, so there's a lot of interest in setting up businesses here but if we don't have the housing, they're going to have to go elsewhere."

Lefebvre said historically housing development has not been as easy as some people would like it to be and this will be about improving those processes.

City officials said there are nine working mines within the city limits right now and that could easily jump to 15 in the coming years.

The move has industry leaders and stakeholders excited about where this could be heading as they look to help Ontario reach its goal.

Louie Zagordo is the president of SLV Homes and the president of the Ontario Home Builders Association.

"It's comforting to hear the mayor of our city is taking the time to organize and put this committee together," said Zagordo.

"It's definitely very encouraging to hear."

Zagordo said the city of Greater Sudbury is facing a lot of similar issues comparing it to others in the province, including a housing shortage.

"There is a shortage of labour and building materials so I believe municipalities and cities are also facing that shortage in terms of manpower,” he said.

“(We) could we use a lot more inspectors, could we use more plan examiners, sure we could and that's the plan that we're going to need to fill that gap."

Zagordo said businesses and developers need to put out affordable types of homes as it is very difficult for first-time home buyers to “fulfill their dreams of home ownership.”

“I think with some collaboration between our cities, municipalities, our governments and of course stakeholders, builders, developers – I’m sure we can get there. We just need to stay focused," he said.

The committee will not provide recommended changes to development requirements that are legislated by the provincial government and city officials said it will not make recommendations that weaken safety or environmental protections.

The exact terms of the special committee are still to be determined – however city staff told CTV News they will deliver those details soon.

"We need to react now to make sure all the proper processes from the municipality point of view are in place so that when demand starts to grow and we're already starting to feel it, that we're ready, willing and able to do it," said Lefebvre.