Population and Housing

[bravado]

Well I guess my question then is how did it all seem to work prior to the massive increases by the municipalities? Why did many of them raise the DC's so aggressively? Was it because they could? Seems short sighted

It worked before ... until the province downloaded around $4B of costs onto the municipalities, who then had to find the money somewhere.

They found it in the wallets of the young and the next generation - not certain that's much of a solution...

As for the discussion above, if a city can't afford to maintain what it has and defers maintenance to keep taxes manageable - then a new subdivision comes in and requires enough sewage capacity to replace the aging water plant, did the new growth fund that or did it just subsidize the decisions of the existing residents to defer maintenance until someone showed up who could pay?

Hell, Kitchener has even been one of the most egregious when it announced that new rec centre fully funded by development charges (aka, a tax on the young) and seemed to brag about it. Here's hoping that only new residents can use it in the spirit of fairness.