MPP questions lack of affordable housing mandate in sale of Metrolinx land near Danforth GO Station

By Amarachi Amadike, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

THE ONTARIO government is under the microscope after allowing the sale of public land to a private buyer without assurances of affordable housing components.

On March 8, Metrolinx finalized the sale of their property on 8 Dawes Rd., south of Danforth Avenue, to development company Marlin Spring. With discussions dating back as far as October 2022 according to the City’s of Toronto’s Application Information Centre, many in the community are wondering why affordable units weren’t made a more significant part of the negotiation process in the sale of the land at the northeast end of the Danforth GO station, which had been owned by the provincial transit authority Metrolinx.

Local politicians are now asking Ontario’s government to revisit legislation which allows develop- ers to acquire land without keeping Toronto’s affordability crisis at the forefront of the discussions.

Beaches-East York MPP MaryMargaret McMahon told Beach Metro Community News that the province has the power to mandate a certain amount of affordable housing in new developments but chooses not to do so.

On April 24 at Queen’s Park, McMahon highlighted this issue to her colleagues as she inquired about why the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford did not require Metrolinx, a crown agency, to include minimum affordable housing requirements in their property sales to private housing developers.

The Beaches-East York Liberal MPP also asked why Ontario is seemingly ignoring the recommendations by the province’s Housing Affordability Task Force to require all future government land sales, “whether commercial or residen- tial”, to reserve at least 20 per cent of their development for affordable housing.

According to its official website, the Housing Affordability Task Force is “comprised of industry leaders and experts” who “consulted with stakeholders including municipalities and advocacy groups to develop their report”. The Task Force report was put in place to help the government identify and implement measures to address the housing supply crisis by getting feedback through avenues such as municipal and public consultations.

“What is the point of creating this report if you do not take the sound advice of experts,” asked McMahon during the April 24 session of the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park.

Kinga Surma, Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure, responded by saying Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are doing a “very thorough analysis of all of our GO

Stations within the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area to see where other opportunities (for affordable housing) exist”.

However, that wasn’t a sufficient response for those wondering why a piece of public land in an essential, high transit area was sold off without guarantees for members of the community who need affordable housing, said McMahon. She said she now intends to submit her inquiries as Order Paper questions which gives the government 24 days to respond in writing.

“We need to have these mandates for affordable housing otherwise people are going to keep moving out of the city,” said McMahon. “We have these major urban centres with entire generations of young people and essential workers who are unable to find rental housing that they can afford.”

McMahon isn’t the only East Toronto politician that has publicly