We’ll be continuing our municipal election coverage during the second hour of Royal City Rag (9-10 a.m.) on October 16.
Community activist Laura Murr will be joining us for the second of our issues based discussions, this one focused around “The Real Cost Of Growth”, an issue that is barely getting a mention in a campaign clogged by discussions of fiscal accountability and candidates trying to out do each other with rash promises of zero tax increases and tax moratoriums.
Few people seem to understand that growth, especially residential growth costs the city money because of infrastructure costs, and few seem to realize that the cost of that growth will be born by the current taxpayer base. The city will grow, and the current city residents will pay for it through higher taxes.
Guelph is scheduled for a development boom under the provincial growth plan, Places To Grow, with a population increase from 115,000 to a staggering 165,000 by 2031. All these people will need somewhere to live, never mind work. Say hello to some large scale residential development and extensive infill.
Places to Grow mandates intensification within current limits which is is a good thing to curb sprawl but it is important to realize that infill development costs FOUR times as much as green field development. The taxpayers of Guelph will have to pay for this smart growth even if city services are drastically curtailed to make tax increases palatable.
Some interesting facts about Guelph:
Population growth
- From 2001 to 2008, Guelph population went from 106,170 to 119,909
- From 2001 to 2006, Guelph’s population growth was 8.3% – the average Ontario growth was 5.7 %
- From 2006 to 2008 , Guelph’s population grew by 4.3% – the Ontario Average was 2.3%
- In total Guelph grew by 12.9% from 2001 to 2008 – the Ontario Average was 9.3%
Numbers are taken from the BMA Management Study Municipal Study 2008
Land Area
- Guelph Land area is 87 square KM.
- Guelph population density per square km = 1,355 persons. In the BMA report this is considered to be high density.
- Guelph has a higher population density than Hamilton, Whitby, Oshawa, Burlington,Oakville, Markham
Consultant CN Watson has indicated that growth will cost between a 4.5 to 5.0% increase in property taxes each year in order to pay for the so called soft services in the Capital Budget required by new residents and businesses. This amount is not recoverable through development charges.
“While I do not have the specific statistics you are looking for readily available, the Council has taken the position to recover the costs of growth from development charges, to the extent permitted by the Development Charges Act. There were some losses of revenue through phase-in strategies before recovering full rates, to help developers transition, and through a few exemptions to promote certain types of growth. There are also certain costs like waste management that are impacted by growth, but are not recoverable through the Development Charges Act.”
– Margaret Neubauer, CFO/City Treasurer (by e-mail)
Want to understand more about the real cost of growth? Then tune in tomorrow. It should be a fascinating discussion.
As always we’ll wrap it all up with some great music. You won’t want to miss it!
Royal City Rag, Saturdays 8-10 a.m. on CFRU93.3fm in Guelph. Remember if you don’t catch Royal City Rag live, you can always pick it up later that day via the CFRU archive or here, on the blog, a day or so later.
Water Yes! Pipeline No!
Posted in Commentary, tagged Guelph Mercury, Municipal Politics, Water on September 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The Guelph Mercury weighs in on Guelph’s water conservation strategy. Yes to more conservation, no to a pipeline to Lake Erie!
Candidates Need To Talk About Water
Guelph Mercury, Editorial
September 20, 2010
There’s a sobering chart in the just-issued annual report of the city’s water conservation and efficiency public advisory committee.
The line graph plots the city’s annual water production against its population growth. The population line is ever rising in the 1998-2010 statistical illustration. The water production is a much flatter line – trending down, with the final year tracked providing the lowest volume flow of water.
During the last civic election campaign, there was some talk of a previously floated remedy to this dilemma – the option of tapping Lake Erie via a pipeline.
So far, the issue of providing a sustainable water supply for the municipality has produced little campaign talk. That might change with the emergence of the water conservation report. It would be good if it did.
The city is set to launch a terrific-sounding pilot program related to this policy area.
This week, the community development and environmental services committee will review a proposed incentive plan to encourage new home builders to establish houses that make smarter use of water. The program would see builders be able to achieve rebates of up to $2,460 for installing such things as low-flow toilets and taps, greywater reuse systems, and/or rainwater harvesting systems.
It could be in place by Nov. 1. We hope it is. It appears a wonderful extension of water conservation measures already undertaken by the municipality such as its promotion of the use of rain barrels and encouragements to replace old inefficient toilets with water-conserving ones.
More can be done and needs to be in this area, however. The city is aiming to reduce average daily water use by 8.7 million litres of water, per day, by 2019. That’s an ambitious target and timeframe – before projected population growth during that period is factored into the thinking.
The pilot Blue Built Home Pilot Program is an example of the type of thinking that will be required to meet this goal. We look forward to council candidates adding to the brainstorming about else could be done. Just please, keep the Lake Erie solution bottled up.
For more on this issue listen to Municipal Election Radio, Tuesdays 7-9 a.m. on CFRU93.3fm in Guelph. Remember if you don’t catch Municipal Election Radio live, you can always pick it up later that day via the CFRU archive or here, on the blog, a day or so later.
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