Council overview package for January 6, 2025

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Aerial photo of downtown area next to a river

Peterborough, ON - City Council endorsed the following items during its General Committee meeting in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 500 George St. N., on Monday, January 6, 2025:

Council agenda

Items endorsed by General Committee on January 6 will be considered by Council for final approval on Monday, January 13, 2025, except for the item related to the Modular Bridge Housing Community, which was approved during a Special Council meeting on January 6, 2025 following the General Committee meeting earlier that evening.

To register as a delegation for a City Council meeting, individuals must complete the online form at peterborough.ca/delegations or phone 705-742-7777 ext. 1820 by 11 a.m. on the day of the meeting.

Municipal services corporation business case study

Council endorsed adopting the proposed business case study for the establishment of a municipal services corporation as an eligible tourism entity.

Council’s adoption of the proposed business case study is the final step that will permit incorporation of the municipal services corporation as an eligible tourism entity to ensure that tourism-related transient accommodation tax (also known as municipal accommodation tax or MAT) can be directed toward City-specific tourism.

On June 24, 2019, Council passed By-law 19-063 establishing a 4% MAT. The MAT is imposed on “transient accommodation” which is defined by the By-law as “accommodation for one or more individuals for a continuous period of less than 30 nights in each place or part or unit of a place in which such accommodation is provided including a hotel, motel, inn, resort or hostel.” The City is entitled to retain as general revenue 50% of MAT net of administrative costs. Provincial regulations require the other 50% of the MAT be directed to a non-profit entity with a mandate that includes the promotion of tourism in Ontario or in a municipality. To date, the City has been paying the 50% of MAT to Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED). With PKED dissolving at the end of 2024, the creation of the new municipal services corporation will be an eligible tourism entity for receiving 50% of MAT for the promotion of tourism.

Tax adjustments and appeals

Council endorsed receiving a report on certain tax adjustments and tax appeals amounting to $187,971.83 in 2024 under sections 356 to 359 of the Municipal Act, 2001.

Tax appeals and adjustments

Section 356 of the Act relates to the processes by which lands are, from time to time, subdivided into parcels which can be legally conveyed under the Planning Act. Subsequently the property taxes are divided based on the revised assessment information received from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). There is no assessment or taxation gain or loss through this process.

Section 357 of the Act provides a mechanism whereby taxpayers can apply for tax adjustments where certain circumstances have occurred after the return of the assessment roll. The more common criteria include building demolitions and fire, property tax class changes, taxable properties becoming exempt, and where clerical errors have been made when compiling the assessment roll.

Section 358 of the Act provides for the cancellation, reduction or refund of all, or part of the taxes levied on a property in one or both of the two years preceding the application year for any overcharge caused by a gross or manifest error in the preparation of the assessment roll that is clerical or factual in nature.

Section 359 of the Act provides for the increase of taxes levied on land where there has been an undercharge caused by a gross or manifest error that is clerical and factual in nature, including the transposition of figures, typographical or similar type errors, but not an error in judgment in assessing the land.

Applicants initiate the appeal process by submitting an application form to the Tax Office providing the full details. MPAC staff are then asked to confirm the information and provide revised assessment figures. City staff subsequently issue notices to applicants that show the original and revised tax levies, and the resulting tax reduction including capping.

Community housing providers amalgamation

Council endorsed approving the amalgamation of Thrive Housing and Support with Northminster Court under the name Thrive Housing and Support.

The City of Peterborough is a service manager for community housing under the Housing Services Act. Council will consider the amalgamation of the two service providers in the City's role as the service manager.

Council will also consider delegating authority to the Commissioner of Community Services to give consent for future amalgamations of community housing providers under the Housing Services Act, 2011.

The amalgamation of Thrive Housing and Support with Northminster Court under the name Thrive Housing and Support will improve operational efficiencies, reduce back-office functions, and achieve cost savings. Housing Service staff support the amalgamation as essential for ensuring financial stability, addressing recruitment challenges, and securing the long-term resilience of affordable housing services.

Thrive is a non-profit housing provider in the City of Peterborough that provides Rent Geared to Income (RGI) supportive housing for people with physical disabilities, for low-income individuals and families, as well as outreach support services for people with physical disabilities. Thrive owns 71 units of housing at Towerhill Village and 51 units at Hilliard Park Homes. It also provides property management services to four other community housing providers: AOTS Chemong Village, Kairos Non-Profit Housing, Kiwanis Club of Scott’s Plains, and as of November 1, 2024, Northminster Court.

Northminster Court, a senior’s Community Housing Provider, operates 40 units, 20 units in Phase 1, 294 Sunset Blvd., Peterborough and 20 units in Phase 2, 308 Sunset Blvd., Peterborough. Northminster Court offers eleven (11) units that are RGI Housing and twenty-nine (29) that are considered Affordable Housing where tenants pay 80% of Average Market Rent.

Currently, 12 independent non-profit boards govern 725 units of community housing, including Northminster Court. Economies of scale can reduce time and costs for housing providers, many of which are operating with slim margins. The Northminster Court Board, facing an aging membership and difficulties with recruitment, recognized these challenges and decided to pursue amalgamation with Thrive Housing and Support. In March 2024, discussions with the two providers began around potential amalgamation at board meetings. As Thrive’s mission, vision and values are in alignment with the future vision of Northminster Court, both boards have agreed to move forward with the amalgamation.

Provincial funding for homelessness response

Council endorsed adding up to 16 modular units at the Modular Bridge Housing Community on Wolfe Street, subject to the successful approval of the City's Encampment Response Initiative application and/or the Last Mile Funding from the Province.

The City of Peterborough is applying for two provincial funding programs: the Encampment Response Initiative and the Last Mile Funding Program, to address homelessness and expand housing capacity.

On December 13, 2024, the City received a notification from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) regarding two newly announced funding programs designed to address homelessness and support housing initiatives. These programs, the Encampment Response Initiative and the Last Mile Funding Program, have business case submission deadlines of January 3 and January 10, 2025, respectively.

The need for shelter options for people experiencing homelessness is continuing to increase in the community. With the new provincial funding programs, there is the prospect of provincial funding to cover the cost of the expansion at Wolfe Street.

The Encampment Response Initiative provides municipalities with funding to expand shelter capacity and develop temporary accommodations for individuals residing in encampments. Eligible uses of this funding include constructing temporary structures such as tiny cabins and sprung shelters, covering operational costs for shelters, and remediating encampment sites. The goal is to provide accessible and urgent housing solutions while restoring encampment sites to safe and usable conditions.

The Last Mile Funding Program is designed to accelerate the completion of near-ready affordable housing projects. It prioritizes projects that demonstrate value for money and align with the Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative (COCHI) guidelines. To qualify, projects must be commitment-ready, with signed contribution agreements within the fiscal year, and shovel-ready, with construction commencing within 120 days of agreement signing.

Both programs emphasize accountability, requiring municipalities to demonstrate a clear strategy for addressing homelessness, fostering partnerships, and providing regular progress reports. These initiatives are aligned with provincial objectives to ensure safe and stable housing while improving public safety.

Bill 242 amendment requests

Council endorsed the following motion:

Whereas:

  1. A municipality’s parks and open spaces are critical infrastructure that support a strong community, and the public’s shared and safe use of the municipality’s parks and open spaces is integral to ensuring that support.
  2. Ontario’s municipalities are struggling to maintain their parks and open spaces for their shared and safe use by the public as a result of the increasing proliferation of encampments and illicit activities related thereto.
  3. Municipalities that enforce their standards regulating or prohibiting encampments in their parks and open spaces must have regard to the availability of shelter space for those who need shelter.
  4. On January 27, 2023, Justice Valente of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rendered his judgment in Waterloo (Regional Municipality) v. Persons Unknown and to be Ascertained (2023), [2023] O.J. No. 417 (Waterloo Decision) which declared that the municipality’s by-law violated section 7 of the Charter and was therefore inoperative insofar as it applied to prevent encampment residents from erecting temporary shelters on a site when the number of homeless individuals in the region exceeded the number of accessible shelter beds.
  5. The Waterloo Decision’s analysis of the adequacy of shelter beds suggests an unworkable and unclear standard that goes beyond the number of shelter spaces and that includes the requirement to provide shelter spaces that must accommodate illicit drug use and other activities that could put shelter residents, workers and volunteers at risk. The result is that municipalities are impaired in their enforcement of their standards and have lost or are losing control of their parks and open spaces.
  6. On December 12, 2024, the Honourable Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, introduced Bill 242, Safer Municipalities Act, 2024. Among its various initiatives, Bill 242 proposes to amend section 2 of the Trespass to Property Act by adding aggravating factors that must be considered in the court’s determination of a penalty under that section. However, the key challenge is that a municipality’s exercise of its rights at common law and under section 9 of the Trespass to Property Act to remove encampments from the municipality’s parks and open spaces remains potentially subject to the unworkable and unclear standard for the adequacy of shelter space suggested by the Waterloo Decision.
  7. In these circumstances, municipalities need provincial legislation that clearly defines a workable standard for shelter space for the purposes of a municipality’s jurisdiction to enforce its standards regulating or prohibiting encampments in its parks and open spaces.

Now therefore, be it resolved:

  1. That the provincial government be respectfully requested to amend Bill 242 to clearly define a workable standard for shelter space for the purposes of a municipality’s jurisdiction to enforce its standards regulating or prohibiting encampments in its parks and open spaces.
  2. That, without limitation, Bill 242 provides that a municipality will have met the standard for shelter space for the purposes of the municipality’s jurisdiction to enforce its standards regulating or prohibiting encampments in its parks and open spaces:
  • despite the establishment and enforcement of shelter rules including rules that prohibit drug use and other activities that could put shelter residents, workers and volunteers at risk; and
  • if an official designated by the municipality is satisfied that the number of available shelter spaces is at least equal to the aggregate of the number of individuals actually seeking shelter and the number of individuals against whom the municipality is planning to enforce its standards regulating or prohibiting encampments in its parks and open spaces.

That a copy of this resolution be sent to:

  • Peterborough - Kawartha MPP Dave Smith;
  • Honourable Doug Ford, Premier;
  • Honourable Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing;
  • Honourable Doug Downey, Attorney General;
  • Association of Municipalities of Ontario; and to
  • Councils of each of Ontario’s municipalities.

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