A new funding frontier evaluating the new community benefits charge legislation in Ontario

Community Benefits Charges represent a new era of municipal finance and community benefit funding in Ontario, replacing a fraught and controversial use of Section 37 (density bonusing) and Section 42 (parkland dedication) of the Planning Act. This report undertook a critical policy analysis to identify early issues and how the legislation and regulations may be reformed to ensure it’s implementation is equitable, efficient and effective, and meets objectives of the province, municipalities and development community. Through an extensive literature review, stakeholder and policy analysis this report identified three key issues, including, stakeholder confusion due to a lack of transparency on the process to develop the charge, financial uncertainty for municipal and private sector projects due to projecting land values in the calculation of the charge and uneven impact on different municipalities and development types. This report recommends the removal of the land value basis, allowing greater variations in implementation and rigid strategy analysis to allow the CBC to better meet the intent of the Province and satisfy identified concerns of all stakeholders.

Key Words: community benefits, density bonusing, development charges, land value capture,

parkland dedication, municipal finance, affordability