We were pleased to see this report. Of course, as is acknowledged, the promoters of the myth that was the population growth projected for the 2003 Official Plan have now themselves long conceded to the facts. We would like to remind Council that at the time, in 2002, the Alliance provided advice in the clearest possible terms that these projections were not credible and we explained why, by their own numbers, they could not possibly come to pass.
Not long thereafter, the Alliance was deeply involved in the review of the Development Charges By-law. Veterans at Council will recall that, in July 2004, DCs were proposed that were significantly higher than the then current rates. Much happened between July and December, which resulted in the DCs staying pretty much where they were or, in some areas, going down considerably. Part of the reason for that end result was an unexplained meltdown of the projected Capital Program – the starting column in the calculation of DC charges – by $1.02 billion (from $6.2 billion). We now wonder whether part of the true explanation for that meltdown was the realization by senior management that the population projections would have to be scaled down eventually. (As the Audit report states, this was acknowledged as early as May 2004.) This link, if it exists, is not laid bare in the Audit Report. If this is what happened, the City failed on transparency but won on prudence, as overbuilding on infrastructure is very expensive.
On the other side, let us be mindful of the fact that this drastic revision downward of the Development Charges late in 2004 also led to more burden being placed on the rate payer – as was acknowledged at the time, water and sewer rates are increasing at 3.67% per year for the 17 years after 2004 because of lowered DCs, if these are maintained for the duration.
The Audit could have shed more light on how, on balance, the public interest fared as a result of the erroneous population projections.
In any case, we support the Auditor’s recommendation that changes in fundamental parameters such as population, household and employment projections be communicated to Council and acted upon promptly by all departments rather than wait until the next 5-year review.