Achi news desk-
The Alberta government announced new initiatives and tools for municipalities to increase the number of affordable housing available across the province.
These would be changes to the Municipal Government Act as part of the controversial Bill 20, which has received criticism from municipalities in Alberta.
Proposed amendments to the act include fully exempting non-profit subsidized affordable housing from municipal property and education taxes.
Another proposed change would allow municipalities to offer multi-year residential property tax exemptions.
The provincial government is also proposing new rules regarding public hearings, including requiring digital options for attendance.
“We also encourage municipalities to make decisions in a timely manner, which is why we are limiting the ability of municipalities to hold additional public hearings that are not required by legislation,” said Ric McIver, minister of municipal affairs.
“We also propose limiting the ability of municipalities to require non-statutory studies for building and development permits.”
So far this year, there have been almost 10,000 new housing construction projects in the province, an increase of 6,200 over the same period in 2023, according to Jason Nixon, minister of the elderly, community and social services. A third of the houses started this year are for rental units.
“There are so many barriers to building more homes that we have the power to remove and with this legislation, we will tackle these barriers encouraging greater efficiency, which ultimately get more shovels in the ground,” Nixon said.
The province’s goal is to support 82,000 more low-income households by 2031, Nixon added.
Outside of the changes in Bill 20, the Community Regeneration Levy (CRL) program criteria will also be expanded to include the capital costs of affordable or privately owned housing.
“The CRL program has already seen great success in Calgary and Edmonton and other communities such as Cochrane and Airdrie are using it as well,” said McIver.
“Our aim is that this approach gives cities one more tool they can consider using to tackle housing issues at a local level.”
The province has also proposed changes to city charters in Edmonton and Calgary.
These include: allowing developers to appeal off-site levies to the Land and Property Rights Tribunal, removing inclusionary housing zoning provisions and repealing the cities’ authority to create by-laws relating to building codes and standards energy efficiency.
According to McIver, these changes will mean less uncertainty from builders and lower costs for homes.
“Alberta needs one building code. Now, this doesn’t stop a municipality if they want to incentivize a higher standard of environmental equipment in a home, but they don’t have the ability to demand that as a condition of building a home that is a road,” said McIver .
“If we were to allow that, in my opinion that would probably result in fewer houses being built at a time when more houses are exactly what we need.”
Officials with the City of Edmonton say the changes will make things more expensive for developers.
“We’ve had feedback from the development industry that stricter energy codes can add additional costs to the construction of a building,” said Kim Petrin of the city.
Although the city can no longer approve projects, they can still incentivize companies to break ground.
“The team is looking at how there will be applications that have green elements to which we will be able to speed up those applications.”
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says the city’s development industry has been innovative in finding ways to build better and reduce emissions.
“They are taking steps on their own to make buildings more sustainable and energy efficient. We will continue to encourage and support our industry to do that.”
With files from Marek Tkach of CTV News Edmonton
