durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, December 8, 2022 | 4 P: 905-430-4300 E: info@whitby.ca whitby.ca What You Need To Know This Week in Whitby Apply For A Community Grant Community groups do so much good in our Town! To help them continue their important work, we are offering Community Development grants of up to $25,000. Mayor's Fundraiser grant applications are due by December 31, 2022. whitby.ca/CommunityFunds Stay Active And Have Fun This Winter Registration for the Town's Winter Programs including March Break Camp is now open! Get your spot early. Available Winter Recreation programs include martial arts, painting, bootcamp, and more. March Break Camps run March 13 to 17 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Brooklin Community Centre and Library. Ages 4 to 13 welcome! Enjoy specialized camp activities, crafts, songs, and games. whitby.ca/Active Have Your Say on the Future of Parks and Recreation in Whitby Scan the QR code to complete an online survey and have your say on how the Town gets active. Hard copies of the survey are also available at all Town recreation and library facilities. We're creating a plan to guide the future of parks and recreation in our community - and we want to hear from you! connectwhitby.ca/ParksAndRecreation Holiday Toy Drive The Town and Owasco VW are running a "Stuff-a-VW Taos" toy drive to help local families in need. Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the Iroquois Park Sports Centre (500 Victoria St. West) now through December 22 and fill the holiday-themed car in the lobby. The Salvation Army will distribute contributions just in time for Christmas. whitby.ca/News You may have heardthat municipalities are concerned the Province of Ontario passed Bill 23 -- The More Homes Built Faster Act. But what is it and what does it mean to you? The Province wants you to think Bill 23 will increase affordable housing in Ontario by building 1.5 million new homes by 2032 -- 18,000 of which are mandated to Whitby. That's just not true. Whitby is eager to partner with the Province and be part of the afford- able-housing solution. However, Bill 23 means higher property taxes, a reduction in existing services for Whitby residents, and more. BILL 23 MEANS: 1. You will pay more -- initial analysis shows Bill 23 will cost Whitby taxpayers $34 million per year, shifting costs of growth for things like parks, new roads, and recreational facilities directly from developers to you. This means at least a 30 per cent overall property tax increase, about a $600 property tax increase for an average Whitby home due to the impacts of Bill 23 alone. This is unacceptable. Unless offset with new provincial municipal infrastructure funding, Bill 23 will significantly impact our ability to fund growth. And the Province's solution of asking municipalities to seek federal grants to make up this funding loss just doesn't make sense. 2. Less affordable housing, not more -- the premise that Bill 23 will create affordable housing is flawed, if not false. The Bill does not dictate that developers reduce housing prices by the "savings" created by Bill 23 -- the market dictates the price of homes. Any "savings" will go directly to developers, with no guarantee that homes will be built or that they will be affordable. In Whitby, we have about 8,000 homes approved to be built today, but developers aren't building due to labour shortages, supply issues and more. Bill 23 does not fix this issue. Whitby is ready to work with the Province and developers to get houses built, but not at your expense. 3. Negative impacts to good planning -- changing municipal governance and planning approvals, Bill 23 strips us of tools we need to manage growth responsibly. The Bill eliminates things like public meetings for approval of planned subdivisions. These checks and balances ensure we grow in a manageable way. 4. Less environmental protection -- Bill 23 makes radical changes to the important role Conservation Authorities have in the planning process, putting the protection of environmentally sensitive areas at risk. So, what can you do? Email our member of provincial parliament Lorne Coe at lorne.coe@pc.ola.org and join our call for the Province to revoke this Bill. It was passed with no meaningful engagement as to its impacts on municipalities and our residents -- you deserve better. All Whitby residents, present and future, should continue to enjoy similar levels of services -- Bill 23 does not provide this ability. It increases the burden on taxpayers and reduces the development community's obligation to contribute to our parks, roads and recreational facilities. This is not fair or transparent. That's why I'm advocating that the municipal sector identify every additional cost passed on to taxpayers due to Bill 23 as being a provincially initiated housing cost. As I, Whitby Council and Town staff work through our annual budget process, you need to know where the buck stops on this one. And it isn't in Whitby. Elizabeth Roy is the mayor of Whitby. WHAT IS BILL 23 AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? OPINION ELIZABETH ROY SAYS WHITBY TAXPAYERS WILL PAY MUCH MORE ELIZABETH ROY Column Initial analysis shows Bill 23 will cost Whitby taxpayers $34 million per year, shifting costs of growth for things like parks, new roads, and recreational facilities directly from developers to you.