A scary pair of terrifying true tales to haunt a troubled city’s slumber
City Hall | Paul Dechene
Happy Halloween, Queen City Creeps. It’s me! Your old friend, The Henry Baker Hall Haunt and just for you I’ve dragged my dusty bones out of my grave on city hall’s front lawn. Surprise! The biohazard was me all along!
I’m here to share a pair of truly terrible hometown tales to scare you stupid as a Saskatchewan Party MLA! And as a bone-shaking bonus, I’ll throw in some costume recommendations inspired by these city hall howlers.
It’s a spooky season two-fer.
I hope you’re sitting down, kiddies. These tales are going to rattle your pile o’bones.
THE TELL-TALE BODY PART THAT RHYMES WITH FUN
Once upon a time there was a municipal corporation that had been founded to run an annual agricultural exhibition. Decades passed and in the year 2022, by some mysterious turn of events, the city that owned this agricultural exhibition corporation put it in charge of marketing and tourism for the city and the whole surrounding region, to boot.
It was a tremendous opportunity for the municipal corporation, and so they chose as their inaugural project a total overhaul of the city’s tourism brand.
But their rebranding campaign hinged upon the fact that the name of the city rhymed with an unmentionable location upon the female anatomy. It was a coincidence that had oft been noted by the very juvenile, the very drunk and once by a necrotic rocker who lurched through the city.
To the municipal corporation, this rhyme seemed very lucky. They were going to make the city “sexy”, they said.
But once they launched their bawdy tourism campaign, instead of laughs and cheers, they were dismayed to discover that their months of hard work were greeted with shock and horror.
Tales of their profane marketing campaign spread far and wide — to other lands and across the sea. Soon, their hubris in thinking an obscene joke would be an appropriate municipal slogan became a joke itself.
Ultimately, The Powers That Be demanded an explanation.
To that end, the municipal corporation brought in a man from Alberta named George B. Cuff who penned what he dubbed a Report On “The Incident.” It was released in July of 2023.
But instead of explaining in detail how or why this Incident could have happened, Mr Cuff merely blamed the whole affair upon a “junior staffer” who prematurely pushed “Go” on the tourism campaign webpage. The municipal corporation’s CEO was far too overworked, you see, to throw himself in the way of this junior staffer’s errant button-pushing finger to prevent this terrible thing from happening.
Weeks and months passed. People moved on. Junior staffers happen sometimes, don’t you know. As summer turned to fall, it looked very much like The Incident and all the furor it had created had finally died.
But those who would take solace from the Incident’s passing had forgotten this couplet from that dread text, the Necronomicon:
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
For if the prophecies I have heard hold true, that report upon “The Incident” will live again and slouch its way toward city hall early this November.
It seems that the agricultural exhibition corporation — REAL is its name — must provide council with an update upon their progress in implementing Mr. Cuff’s recommendations. It will be the first opportunity for all of council to confront REAL board chair, Wayne Morsky, in public about the report.
I hope Mr. Morsky is preparing himself appropriately. This council meeting could be a real punch to the rhymes-with-guts!
Costume Suggestions: A junior staffer who’s been run over by a bus. A sexy city.
MANIAC MASSACRE: THE HOUSING MINISTER DEMANDS DENSITY!
Maybe you’ve heard tell of “Fake London” and how that Ontario municipality will be getting $74 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund to support construction of 2,000 new homes over three years? It’s a sweet deal. All Fake London had to do to get that federal money was promise to use the policy levers they have to make it easier for housing to be built — stuff like changing their zoning bylaw to permit four-plexes everywhere in Fake London, even in their in low-density, single-family neighbourhoods.
Create missing-middle housing. Densify. Overthrow the NIMBY hegemony that prioritizes “neighbourhood character” over smart growth and building homes where people can access the services they need (like transit).
A nice story with a happy ending.
And maybe you’ve heard tell of the city of Regina? It has also submitted a Housing Accelerator Fund application — for $36.2 million, to be precise. It didn’t offer anything so boldly specific as “allow four-plexes everywhere” but it did provide an 11-point plan for increasing density in the city core and creating greater housing diversity in established neighbourhoods.
But while Regina is hopeful that it too will be successful in their bid for sweet, sweet Housing Accelerator cash, little did they know that… THE HOUSING MINISTER IS A MANIAC!
Maybe you heard tell of Mississauga? It applied for $120 million through the HAF program. But their city council voted down a motion to allow four-plexes in single-family neighbourhoods, opting instead to get a study on the impacts of four-plexes in existing neighbourhoods! After that vote, they discovered THE HOUSING MINISTER IS A MANIAC! who cut and slashed their HAF application down to exactly zero dollars.
Sean Fraser, MANIAC HOUSING MINISTER, even left a note behind that read, “Canada is in a housing crisis, and cities have an important role to play in addressing this crisis by legalizing housing and removing the outdated approaches to zoning that are not keeping pace with the growth of our communities… Given the defeat of [the four-plex] motion and the arguments made during its deliberation, I am not confident that Mississauga intends to seize this opportunity to fully leverage the federal dollars on offer from the Housing Accelerator Fund.”
TERRYFYING!
And maybe you’ve heard the twin tale of Burnaby and Surrey BC, which were hoping to build 60,000 housing units over five years with a combined $138 million in HAF money? (That’d be $43 million for Burnaby, $95 million for Surrey)
But then, oh no! THE HOUSING MINISTER IS A MANIAC! who smashed their funding dreams to a bloody pulp after the Metro Vancouver regional government (of which both cities are a part) proposed increasing development charges, thereby making housing construction more expensive.
GRUESOME!
It’s almost like a city can’t pander to existing taxpayers at the expense of newcomers, young people and the poor anymore!
The question at the end of this tale is, is Regina more like Fake London or like all those cities who’ve had their HAF applications massacred?
At its Oct. 25 meeting, council will consider a motion from Ward 2 Councillor Bob Hawkins regarding “Revitalizing Regina’s Housing Supply” [see Frightnote below]. It asks city administration to consult with “industry and interested stakeholders” to assess the availability of developable greenfield land, identify obstacles to infill development, identify areas for immediate infill, and develop regulatory processes to expedite housing construction. Admin is to report back by the end of this year.
I note that nowhere is there mention of ending exclusionary zoning, building four-plexes in single-family neighbourhoods or dropping development charges. Instead, it’s a request for a very Mississauga-esque study.
What’s that shadow over your shoulder, Councillor Hawkins? Could it be federal housing minister, Sean Fraser?
Watch out! THE HOUSING MINISTER IS A MANIAC!
Costume Suggestions: A humiliated city councillor with empty, turned-out pockets. A suburbanite protesting duplexes. Federal housing minister, Sean Fraser. ■
FRIGHTNOTE
It is a scary thing, submitting an article about Regina city council the day before they hold their Wednesday meeting, knowing that your article will appear in print the day after the reports you’re writing about have been discussed and the votes on them have been cast.
You want your coverage to be timely, so you write about what’s happening that week. But there’s always the risk that what you write on a Tuesday will be completely irrelevant come Thursday.
Fortunately, for a very long time with Regina city council, you could be fairly certain that at least what is on the council agenda on Tuesday will get a hearing during the Wednesday meeting.
But with this crew? Nothing is certain.
Councillor Hawkins’ “Revitalizing Regina’s Housing Supply Motion” is a case in point, as Mayor Sandra Masters kicked off the Wednesday Oct. 25 council meeting by announcing Hawkins’ motion would be postponed.
It won’t be coming back to council until January 21!
That’s a long way off considering housing is in crisis today and we should be getting a final decision on our Housing Accelerator Fund application long before then.
What gives?
“There was some outreach from our planning and development department in administration to the Regina Homebuilders Association, Stu Neibergal, who’s away today,” Masters explained in the press scrum after the council meeting.
“There had been some contact made between administration and a motion which has its roots in the white paper that council had received about a year and a half ago,” added Masters. “And so, they had asked for a bit of time to continue to work through — to narrow down a little bit — about what that report is going to look like and had asked for some additional time that they could work with some of the stakeholders to come forward with recommendations to council.
“So as opposed to asking for a report and getting it, we’re hopeful that a little bit of the work will be done in advance, with then some recommendations coming forward I believe in January 2024,” she said.
THAT WILL REQUIRE SOME BACKGROUND
Okay… explanations:
The “white paper” here is a report prepared by the Homebuilders Association titled “Accommodating Growth: The delicate balance between Greenfield and Infill Growth.” It had been presented to council two years ago, back in October 2021.
The report takes a look at the housing situation in Regina and makes some conclusions and recommendations about how city hall could encourage more residential development.
This report does not suck.
I mean, it’s not perfect. For instance, I’m not so keen on how it redefines sprawl, says Regina doesn’t have any of it, then concludes — whoop whoop — build on that greenfield!
But that isn’t the whole of the report and there’s lots of worthwhile stuff in there.
Take this section, about what council should do to encourage infill development in existing neighbourhoods:
Attracting Investment in Intensification
There are steps that City Council and City Administration could take to make investment in intensification much more. Key steps include:
1. Pre-Zoning: Removes months from approval process and provides strong municipal leadership on the OCP (See Appendix “H” — Pre-zoning and Democracy).
2. Pre-determine Density: Provide clarity on what the City is willing to accept in local context of each neighborhood.
3. Pre-determine Built-Form: This might be as simple as determining building heights or go as far as determining built forms.
4. Pre-servicing Identification: Identifying in advance what requirements will be to achieve priorities 1, 2 and 3 listed above.
5. Political Will: if it is a Council and policy priority, Council members need to have the political fortitude to see past the type of opposition that is rooted simply in not changing anything within their neighbourhood. Infill development is inherently about change and renewal and Council should [sic] needs to accept that decisions about change cannot always make everyone happy.
That is helpful, thanks. Nice that Councillor Hawkins is finally doing something with it two full years after it came to council.
Except now, he’s not. Because his motion is getting tabled and we’re going to wait until… January? So that Stu “away today” Niebergall and the Homebuilders Association can prepare a response to Hawkins’ motion.
Hawkins’ motion that hasn’t been discussed by council. Or voted on.
That seems odd.
And I don’t see how dawdling on this will help us get that sweet, sweet Housing Accelerator Fund money.
Speaking of…
HOUSING ACCELERATOR FUND APPLICATION UPDATE
Mayor Masters was also asked about the status of that Housing Accelerator Fund application after the council meeting.
“I had a conversation with minister Sean Fraser who has housing and infrastructure at the federal government, last week and again yesterday through the big city mayor’s caucus, we had a big day-long meeting and he was present,” said Masters. “What we are looking at is, they have given us feedback on our application of how to receive those net new units over and above what we, on a standard basis, get. And so what I think you’ll see is a motion coming that will be debated at council with regards to some of those recommendations, which are looking for more intensification, more densification and specifically, in terms of the federal government, focused around transit routes.
“I think before Dec. 31 you’ll see a motion come forward,” Masters said. “No promises how that will go at council. But a motion is coming forward.
“It’s an interesting program [the Housing Accelerator Fund],” said Masters. “While there may be some conditions attached to it in terms of easing up on some zoning and us coming back to them saying, we may have issues with infrastructure — like wastewater — in certain areas. That negotiation piece is what’s at hand right now.”
“We’re pleased that our application was reasonable; by and large, well received,” said Masters. “We knew that part of what the Accelerator Fund is intended to do is to assist municipalities in looking at things like housing-needs assessments and zoning that may be getting in the way of intensification and building multi-family residential. And now they’re coming back to us, looking to look at our own zoning bylaws in advance.
“We have a commitment, especially within the intensification area — which for general purposes is inside the Ring Road — we’ve been looking for ideas around intensification and just to make sure our zoning is matching-up to our aspirations,” concluded Masters. “That’s a fair thing to do.”
TL;DR: We got “feedback” from Sean Fraser on our HAF application and now a motion is coming to council that will tackle things like “zoning” that are getting in the way of “intensification.”
Gee… WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING?
Funny how we’re going to have a motion now, in 2023, to address exclusionary zoning in our zoning bylaw.
“Exclusionary zoning” being the R1-Single Detached zoning that administration recommended be removed from the zoning bylaw in 2019.
And R1 exclusionary zoning would have been removed except for the lobbying of one Councillor Bob Hawkins along with support from Councillors Bresciani, Mancinelli and Findura (and then-Councillors Barb Young, Sharon Bryce, Jerry Flegel and Mayor-of-the-day Fougere). They insisted exclusionary zoning be retained and now it’s hanging around our neck like a millstone.
Great job, everybody.
(Yes, I will keep harping on this until R1-Single Detached zoning is deader than a Stark at a House Frey feast.)
WHAT MANIAC HOUSING MINISTER WANTS
Meanwhile… the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation —the federal entity that will administer the Housing Accelerator funding — recently published this 10-point Housing Accelerator best practices guide for cities hoping to get funding:
Top 10 Housing Accelerator Fund Best Practices
1. End exclusionary zoning
-Stop low-density zoning and regulation that excludes housing types such as affordable and social housing in residential areas.
-Encourage high density by allowing mixed-use development and high-density residential as-of-right within proximity to urban cores and transit corridors.
-This includes adopting by-laws to adopt more as-of-right zoning measures, from the number of units to storeys.
2. Make municipally owned lands available for housing through strategies such as disposition, acquisition and/or pre-development.
3. Increase process efficiency by implementing new technologies or software to speed up development approvals, such as e-permitting.
4. Prioritized/enhanced development approval process for rental and affordable housing.
5. Comprehensive review of development charges and fee schedules including waivers, with a focus on permits associated with affordable housing.
6. Reduce or eliminate parking standards to increase project viability, density and reduce carbon footprint.
7. Eliminate restrictions related to height, setbacks, building floor area and others to allow a greater variety in housing types, including accessory dwelling units.
8. Develop affordable housing community improvement plans or strategies/plans for the rapid deployment of affordable housing.
9. Design and implement guidelines or pre-approved building plans for missing middle housing or specific accessory dwelling unit types such as laneway housing or garden suites.
10. Develop grant programs encouraging the development of housing types that align with the Housing Accelerator Fund such as missing middle, row homes, purpose-built rental and/or that promote new/innovative construction techniques (modular, pre-fab, mass timber construction, etc.).
Note how the spirit of CMHC’s list synchs with what Regina Homebuilders were suggesting — two full years ago.
It’s just stunning how FOR YEARS Regina city council has had ample evidence of how our zoning bylaw has been an obstacle to affordable housing. And we’ve had a list of strategies to encourage intensification. Again, FOR YEARS.
But it was all to no avail.
And then along comes Sean Fraser, MANIAC HOUSING MINISTER, representative of the DESPISED Trudeau federal government, with $36.2 million to build houses and maybe we’ll get a motion? Before December?
Well, it’s something. I guess.