Do municipalities have a responsibility to set and enforce bylaws? I’m currently taking a few courses in municipal law to better understand our bylaws and how we enforce them. I’m quickly discovering that, despite the fact that laws are written in the most exhaustively boring way possible in order to avoid any confusion, interpretation isContinue reading “Responsibility to Enforce”
Tag Archives: Ontario politics
Housing and Homelessness in Northumberland
Two weeks ago I was a speaker at the Northumberland Community Legal Centre’s annual Justice Forum, where the topic this year was homeless encampments. I brought a perspective from inside municipal government, talking about government as multiple overlapping systems each with their own jurisdictional distinctions and resource flows — a system of systems that, despiteContinue reading “Housing and Homelessness in Northumberland”
Multiple Representation in Politics
In my day job as a REALTOR®, “multiple representation” refers to when the same agent or brokerage represents both sides of a transaction. It’s an important issue, because when the same agent represents two parties at the same time they have opportunities for a conflict of interest, or simply favouring one side over the other.Continue reading “Multiple Representation in Politics”
What’s a Wetland?
2023 in Brighton municipal politics has been dominated by one development proposal. We held public meetings in January to get a look at the proposal, and the matter will finally be defined this week, on December 11th. I don’t normally talk about matters that are currently being considered, and I’m not here to talk aboutContinue reading “What’s a Wetland?”
Property Value
Two things came up in Northumberland in the past week about property value. One was a training session our council had about the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and how they determine assessment for our tax rolls; the other was concerns about property value suffering from stigma associated with the increase of visible homelessness andContinue reading “Property Value”
Year One
It’s been a year since this council was sworn in, and what a year it’s been! I started this blog during a campaign in which I focused on Vision, Communication, and Collaboration, and I feel like those have been central to the way that council has operated so far. My Highlight The End of 2022Continue reading “Year One”
Housing and Finance
In the last few posts I quoted the former Deputy Mayor of Toronto, who pointed out that there are three things you need to get housing built: “You need the approvals, you need the people to build these things and you need a way to finance it…Right now, we’re having issues in all three.” We’veContinue reading “Housing and Finance”
Housing Hurdles: Labour and Materials
In the last post I quoted the former Deputy Mayor of Toronto, who pointed out that there are three things you need to get housing built: “You need the approvals, you need the people to build these things and you need a way to finance it…Right now, we’re having issues in all three.” The FordContinue reading “Housing Hurdles: Labour and Materials”
Municipalities and Housing
In the last post we looked at how a lack of housing supply has driven prices up, and how this is a feature of a housing market that treats housing as a commodity to be traded and invested in rather than as a human right and necessity. But why are there so few housing units?Continue reading “Municipalities and Housing”
Housing Supply and Markets
In my last post we looked at the context of the housing crisis. For the next few posts we’ll look at elements of the problem — because there are many angles to it. Today we’ll look at housing supply. Economics 101 One of the most fundamental notions of economics is the relationship between supply andContinue reading “Housing Supply and Markets”