Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas said he’ll be calling for a restructuring of provincial infrastructure funding and for “more autonomy” for municipal development planning, in his new role on the board of directors at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
Mrakas was elected to the organization’s board of directors during its annual conference in Ottawa last week. He will be representing York Region as part of the regional and single tier caucus on the board.
Mrakas said the appointment is an honour, adding that meeting with other municipal leaders is valuable as a means of sharing ideas.
During the upcoming board term, which runs to 2026, Mrakas said he’ll be advocating for the way municipalities receive infrastructure funding to be "restructured."
“You can't expect municipalities to grow if the funding is not there for us to build the infrastructure that's needed for that growth,” he told AuroraToday.
Municipal finances were a key issue at the conference, with other political parties promising a "new deal" for stable municipal funding. Meanwhile, the province announced a $400-million application intake for housing-enabling infrastructure, part of an ongoing $1-billion municipal housing infrastructure program.
“We never want to over-develop a community because you put strain on the infrastructure, on every aspect of it, and that's not good. Essentially, the municipality is going to become broken," said Mrakas. “So, we want to continue to make sure that our municipalities are thriving and growing in an appropriate manner.”
On development, Mrakas said he was "very pleased" by what he heard from provincial Housing Minster Paul Calandra and in the province’s planning statement, toward giving municipalities “more autonomy.”
“I'm very pleased to see that the minister and the province are really making a move toward having local municipalities have more autonomy when it comes to land use planning decisions,” he said. “I've always said that's a good thing, because we each are unique, we each have our own challenges in our municipalities.”
The provincial government also announced plans for new provincial planning rules to help municipalities hit housing targets, by encouraging building in areas of major transit stations. New rules would also incentivize more homes on underutilized low-density lands like malls and a broader range of housing options.
“In the face of high interest rates and a challenging global economy, our government is working closely with municipalities to cut red tape and give them the tools they need to build more homes and hit their housing targets,” Calandra said.
“While we are facing a housing crisis right across the board, we need to realize that and put forward those policies that allow us to be flexible on our end, but allow us to make the decisions that are in the best interest of each of our own communities,” added Mrakas.
