Mayor's lobbying suddenly yields $10M savings in 2026 budget from Development Charge exemptions
A letter from Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing confirms that the City of London is not required to continue setting aside millions of dollars each year to offset mandatory exemptions to Development Charges (DCs).
One day before an important Budget Committee meeting at City Hall, Mayor Josh Morgan said the clarification represents a permanent reduction of about $10 million from the 2026 Budget—and even more in subsequent years.
'This is the result of months and months of discussions with the Province of Ontario about municipalities' obligations under DC legislation to backfill for exemptions,' Morgan explained.
Based on a philosophy that growth pays for growth, DCs are municipal fees on new construction that are intended to offset the cost of expanding services and infrastructure required by a growing city.
Development Charges contribute to expanding roads, water and sewer infrastructure, community centres, firefighting, policing, and library facilities.
There are exemptions for certain developments, including affordable housing and non-profit housing.
Municipalities across the province, including London, have been backfilling the exemptions with property taxes and budget surpluses believing it was an obligation under the Development Charges Act (DCA).
That is no longer the case.
The letter from the Ministry reads, '…the DCA does not require municipalities to fund statutory and non-statutory exemptions and discounts.'
According to Morgan, the savings will total $10 million in permanent savings in the 2026 municipal budget:
Property Tax supported Budget: $6.4 million (0.7 per cent impact on tax rate)
Water Budget: $500,000 (0.5 per cent impact on water rate)
Wastewater Budget: $3.1 million (3.2 per cent impact on wastewater rate)
The mayor says the province's interpretation of the Act will also avoid a looming shortfall in 2027.
'An important piece to this is future [budget] pressure that we had not budgeted for,' added the mayor. 'About $32 million of pressure within all of those [three] budgets which would have meant significant pressure of about 1.5 per cent on the property tax side, and over 5 per cent on the wastewater side.'
Although property taxpayers may be off the hook for covering the exemptions, the need for service and infrastructure improvements stemming from DC-exempted developments must still be met.
The mayor says money left over from exemptions in previous years will give city hall some breathing room until a longer-term funding model emerges from senior levels of government.
'There will be need for support for the DC fund and DC funded projects in the future,' Morgan acknowledged. 'That won't come this year or next year, but at some point we're going to need support. What I will say is the province of Ontario has done a really good job of actually starting to ramp up water and wastewater infrastructure spending.'
Morgan said he will be including a business case in his draft budget this fall related to the DC exemption savings.
The mayor has set a property tax target of below 5 per cent in 2026.
The Budget Committee will receive a presentation by the mayor on June 11.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
17 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Carney travelling to Europe for security, defence talks with EU, NATO
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney will depart for Europe on Sunday for back-to-back summits where he is expected to make major commitments for Canada on security and defence. Carney will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Defence Minister David McGuinty and secretary of state for defence procurement Stephen Fuhr at the EU and NATO summits, where military procurement and diversifying supply chains will top the agendas. The international meetings come as Canada looks to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the United States due to strained relations over tariffs and President Donald Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state. Carney will fly first to Brussels, Belgium, starting the trip with a visit to the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery where 348 Canadian soldiers are buried. He will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. At the EU-Canada summit, Anand and McGuinty are expected to sign a security and defence agreement with the EU in what one European official described Friday as one of the most ambitious deals Europe has ever signed with a third country. The agreement will open the door to Canada's participation in the ReArm Europe initiative, allowing Canada to access a 150-billion-euro loan program for defence procurement, called Security Action for Europe. An EU official briefing reporters on Friday said once the procurement deal is in place, Canada will have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the European Commission to begin discussions with member states about procurement opportunities. A Canadian official briefing reporters on the summit Saturday said the initial agreement will allow for Canada's participation in some joint procurement projects. However, a second agreement will be needed to allow Canadian companies to bid. At the EU-Canada summit, leaders are also expected to issue a joint statement to underscore a willingness for continued pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions, and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. After Brussels, Carney heads to The Hague in the Netherlands for the NATO leaders' summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. There, Carney will meet with the King of the Netherlands and later with leaders of Nordic nations to discuss Arctic and transatlantic security. At the NATO summit, Carney will take part in bilateral meetings with other leaders. The summit agenda includes a social dinner hosted by the king and queen of the Netherlands and a two-and-a-half hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council. NATO allies are expected to debate a plan to hike alliance members' defence spending target to five per cent of national GDP. NATO data shows that in 2024, none of its 32 members spent that much. The Canadian government official who briefed reporters on background says the spending target and its timeline are still up for discussion, though some allies have indicated they would prefer a seven-year timeline while others favour a decade. Canada hasn't hit a five- per- cent defence spending threshhold since the 1950s and hasn't reached the two per cent mark since the late 1980s. NATO says that, based on its estimate of which expenditures count toward the target, Canada spent $41 billion in 2024 on defence, or 1.37 per cent of GDP. That's more than twice what it spent in 2014, when the two per cent target was first set; that year, Canada spent $20.1 billion, or 1.01 per cent of GDP, on defence. In 2014, only three NATO members achieved the two per cent target — the U.S., the U.K., and Greece. In 2025, all members are expected to hit it. Any agreement to adopt a new spending benchmark must be ratified by all 32 NATO member states. Former Canadian ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck told The Canadian Press the condensed agenda is likely meant to 'avoid public rifts among allies,' describing Trump as an 'uncertainty engine.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'The national security environment has really, really shifted,' Buck said, adding allies next door to Russia face the greatest threats. 'There is a high risk that the U.S. would undercut NATO at a time where all allies are increasingly vulnerable.' Trump has suggested the U.S. might abandon its mutual defence commitment to the alliance if member countries don't ramp up defence spending. 'Whatever we can do to get through this NATO summit with few public rifts between the U.S. and other allies on anything, and satisfy a very long-standing U.S. demand to rebalance defence spending, that will be good for Canada because NATO's good for Canada,' Buck said. Carney has already made two trips to Europe this year — the first to London and Paris to meet with European allies and the second to Rome to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2025.
National Post
17 minutes ago
- National Post
Rick Seymour: If we want strong national defence, we must support military families
As global instability grows and international threats evolve, Canada can no longer afford to underinvest in its national defence. The government's renewed commitment to strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces is timely — and long overdue. But as we debate where to allocate dollars, we must remember one fundamental truth: national defence isn't just about equipment or infrastructure. It's about people. Article content Article content Canada's military strength depends not only on ships, jets, and munitions — but on the human beings behind them. Recruitment, retention and readiness are impossible to achieve if we neglect the well-being of those who serve — and their families. Article content Article content Article content In my role as CEO of the Together We Stand Foundation, one of Canada's few national charities dedicated to supporting serving military families, I've visited 15 operational bases across the country. The conversations I've had reveal a consistent, sobering reality: many military families face significant challenges — challenges that would be daunting for any Canadian household. These include inadequate housing, limited access to health care, unaffordable childcare, and even food insecurity. Article content These struggles aren't the result of poor leadership within the military. They stem from decades of national complacency — a belief that our geography and global alliances would insulate us from harm. That belief no longer holds. Article content Article content We often describe our military as an insurance policy — a safeguard we hope never to use. But an insurance policy is only as strong as the people who uphold it. Article content Article content Right now, Canada's armed forces are under-resourced and stretched dangerously thin. We're more than 20,000 personnel short — and that's based on a target that's already lower than what our global commitments demand. Even more concerning, we're losing experienced members in the critical middle ranks — those essential to mentoring and training the next generation. Today, Canada has fewer troops than the Arkansas National Guard. Ammunition reserves are running low, and equipment across the Navy, Army and Air Force is aging. While much of the public conversation focuses on procurement and infrastructure — rightly so — we're still not talking enough about our most essential asset: people. We need individuals motivated to enlist, willing to serve, and prepared to sacrifice. But they will only step forward — and stay — if their families are supported. Would you take a job knowing it meant frequent relocations, no access to a family doctor, limited child-care options and few job opportunities for your spouse? Would you agree to deploy for months on end, knowing your loved ones are left behind with rising bills and little support?
National Post
17 minutes ago
- National Post
Barbara Kay: Canada needs to have a serious talk about the Muslim Brotherhood
Article content Nevertheless, investigations carried out elsewhere are available to us. For example, in 2021 a European Parliament committee produced an in-depth analysis of Muslim Brotherhood activity in Europe. More recently, a classified French report the group's plan to take over Europe was leaked to France's Le Figaro; writing on the subject, the Free Press's Simone Rodan-Benzaquen observed, 'The Brotherhood operates as a political project. Its goal is not sudden revolution, but gradual transformation.… And it is not coming just for France. It is coming for all of the West.' Article content The U.S. has known all about the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology since a damning 1991 memorandum by the group detailing its Islamist aims and methods surfaced in the next decade during the Hamas-centric Holy Land Foundation trial. Before the Trump era, a cone of silence, similar to Canada's, had been placed over it. (Barack Obama naively believed he could make the Brotherhood an ally.) Article content In 2017, Congress held a hearing on whether the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization, but a proposal to criminalize it failed to materialize due to divisions in Trump's first administration. Now, lawmakers are trying again: early this month, a new bill was introduced to Congress with promising bicameral support. Article content Unfortunately, the chances of Canada's present government following suit — or even committing to a Europe-style investigation — are nugatory to nil. Article content My certainty springs from the concerning fact that on June 6, in Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney chose MAC as his audience for a multiculturalism-themed Eid al-Adha address. A George Washington University report by the school's Program on Extremism found that MAC proudly self-identifies as a Muslim Brotherhood legacy group. The Brotherhood also hosts foreign speakers whose discourse features antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia. Article content At his address, Carney equated MAC values with Canadian values. Backlash ensued; more than one observer noted that MAC had been investigated by the Canada Revenue Agency which, in a 2021 audit document, alleged that some MAC directors and employees were involved in 'an apparent Hamas support network.' Article content It's one thing for woke, virtue-signalling global marchers to be shrouded in ignorance. We can mock their credulity. The same appearance of ignorance is inexcusable in a nation's leader. Was Carney deliberately messaging acceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood's claim for social inclusion under the aegis of multiculturalism? If so, that too is inexcusable, but also makes no sense. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has, like the Brotherhood, spawned numerous terrorist offshoots — Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — was (finally) designated by Canada as a terrorist entity in 2024. Yet there is precious little daylight between the triumphalist end games of both IRGC and the Muslim Brotherhood. Article content A saving grace in the era of Soviet-sponsored infiltration of the West was our freedom to educate ourselves about communism's dangers without being accused of 'Marxophobia.' It's past time we had that same freedom to hold a 'national level discussion' on the Muslim Brotherhood. Article content
