Mayor Masters might save Regina’s housing grant. Will Scott Moe stop her?

City Hall | Paul Dechene

Here’s the Too Long; Didn’t Read version of this issue’s city hall column: Mayor Sandra Masters is taking a big, positive step towards securing $36.2 million in Housing Accelerator Funds for Regina but Canada’s premiers are threatening to sabotage the whole thing!

Here’s the Too Long; Didn’t Read version of the above TL;DR: version of this city hall column:

Canada’s provincial premiers are whining, meddlesome asshats.

Mayor’s Massive Motion

Regina Mayor Sandra Masters has an Accelerating Housing Motion coming to the Nov. 22 city council meeting. If it survives undiluted, it could transform Regina’s housing market in exciting ways. It should also prove to the federal government that we’re serious about solving our housing problems, and thereby secure us that sweet, sweet Housing Accelerator Fund funding.

The Be-It-Resolveds kick off with “Allow more densification” — which, fine, yawn, heard that before. But from there we move into the meat of the motion: “as a right[1] zoning for up to four residential units within our intensification area… and two units as of right in greenfield developments”; “four-story residential buildings as of right zoning within 400 meters of main transit routes”; and “removal of parking minimums for developments in proximity to main transit routes”.

What will this mean for my backyard?

For the 87 per cent of the city that’s within the intensification area, this will mean developers of infill housing will have the freedom to build up to fourplexes on lots that have previously been limited to one or two units. And there won’t be any need for them to take their development plan to city council for discretionary approval, saving them a costly layer of public consultation in a (usually fruitless) attempt to appease local NIMBYs.

Similarly, as the fringe of the city develops, single-family zoning effectively won’t exist and duplexes will be permitted everywhere.

Near transit routes, the opportunities for development will be even better as four-storey apartments will be permitted and parking minimums will be gone[2].

In short, it’s a prescription to gradually increase residential density across the city and provide more housing options — especially missing middle housing[3] which is in short supply across the country.

They’re changes that are, in a word, overdue.

The Nimby Peril

They’re also the kind of changes council has been running away from ever since 2013 when they passed the density-friendly (on paper, at least) Design Regina, our revised Official Community Plan.

For instance, just last year, council carved a loophole in their density targets, giving themselves discretion to permit lower densities than the OCP recommends in new neighbourhoods. This year, a motion by Councillor Lori Bresciani to raise parking minimums for multi-family residential in greenfield neighbourhoods was only narrowly defeated at the bylaw-reading phase. Back in 2019, when council was passing a new zoning bylaw, they voted against gentle residential densification by preserving R-1, single-detached zoning across most of the city.

And at various times over the years, councillors like Bresciani and Bob Hawkins have made it very clear that they believe efforts to encourage densification have gone too far.

We will have to wait and see until that Nov. 22 council meeting if the promise of $36.2 million in housing support will overcome these councillors’ recalcitrance.

But opposition to Mayor Masters’ motion from within city council could be the least of our troubles.

Canada’s Premier Dipshits

At the Council Of The Federation meeting Nov. 5–6 in Nova Scotia, provincial premiers expressed their desire to horn-in on the flow of housing cash between the federal government and cities. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston was saying that provinces need to be at the table on investments like this. While Saskatchewan’s premier Scott Moe rang alarms about the federal government doling out housing cash to score political points. [4]

The premiers then floated the idea of passing laws such that municipalities would have to seek provincial approval before engaging with the federal government for any kind of funding.

This could be an absolute disaster.

If the premiers get involved, it will add a layer of bureaucracy and politics, slowing down or even derailing a program that is supposed to be getting hundreds of thousands of houses built across the country in just three years.

It seems if provincial premiers can’t take sole credit for a federal funding initiative (see: $10 daycare) or squat on funding until they’re allowed to use it for initiatives beyond what its intended for (see: COVID relief), they’re fully willing to throw a tantrum and then undermine initiatives intended to help people.

Worse, Scott Moe has shown his willingness to go to court to block federal programs (see: carbon pricing). And he’s quite happy to meddle in municipal affairs if they’re not going the way he wants (see: the Oil & Gas Sponsorship Motion, the law banning cities from regulating firearms within their borders).

At the risk of summoning something by naming it, if enough of Moe’s suburban NIMBY voters raise alarm bells about the threat to their property values from fourplexes or scarce on-street parking, it is within his powers to kill Masters’ motion whether by acting behind the scenes, whining angrily on Twitter[5], or by flexing his government’s powers under the Cities Act to remove, repeal, alter, amend or rescind any municipal bylaw or resolution.

Scott Moe can even disband our city council if their relationship with the province degrades enough.[6]

Hello, Fellow Pawns!

This should have been a good news story about free federal money and Mayor Masters pushing through some long-needed changes to our housing policies.

And it may be a good news story yet.

On our side: The weight of millennia of evidence showing that cities grow denser over time and that’s a good thing.

Oh, and there’s also that $36.2 million in federal housing money.

Against us: Some very out-of-touch politicians with very out-of-date ideas and an axe to grind with the federal government.

Fortunately, history shows evidence and good policy always trump cheap politics!

[/sarcasm] ■

Footnotes

1. Calling an approved use in a zone “as of right zoning” is, as far as I can tell, new language for the City of Regina. I don’t recall hearing it used before now and couldn’t find that term — or the related term, “by right approval” — in the residential chapter of our zoning bylaw. (Though, there’s a chance they’re in there somewhere and my PDF searches missed them somehow.) The phrase does, however, appear a couple times in the “10 Housing Accelerator Fund best practices” posted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the agency that will be administrating the Housing Accelerator Fund payouts.

This suggests the language of Masters’ motion is carefully selected to satisfy the desires of Infrastructure Canada.

2. Finally!

3. “Missing middle housing” is a term coined by urban planner and architect Daniel Parolek that refers to medium density housing, ranging from duplexes to low-rise apartment buildings, that are typically more affordable than single-family suburban homes.

4. Of course, prairie premiers can be trusted to administer the housing funds because they are famously immune to the temptation of doling-out money to get votes.

5. That is its name.

6. Check part 15 section 2 of Saskatchewan’s Cities Act.