News release: October 30, 2023
Peel infrastructure: supporting growth
Innovative techniques to help communities build homes faster
BRAMPTON, ON (October 30, 2023) - Peel Region Council received an update last Thursday on efforts to support the province's ambitious housing targets - with enabling infrastructure. Bill 23 significantly accelerates the demands for water, wastewater, and roads infrastructure, at rates almost five times that of historical growth. Staff are making advancements on their commitment to support Bill 23 to ensure Peel is ready to provide enabling infrastructure to build more homes faster.
Peel Region is:
- Accelerating work through the next capital budget to increase the number of projects that are built in the short and long-term,
- Using innovative techniques such as grouping projects together and using external program management resources to oversee large-scale capital projects and using a Progressive Design Build approach to integrate project design and construction into a phased approach to enable an early start and an accelerated capital plan.
- Updating both the Water and Wastewater Master Servicing Plan and Transportation Master Plan to align with the new 2051 Regional Official Plan and Bill 23 housing targets.
- Making early recommendations for large-scale infrastructure projects within the current Water and Wastewater Master Servicing Plan.
- Working with local municipalities to make sure we plan together, where and when growth happens, in a way that supports the existing community and system capacity.
The update also highlighted the significant challenges to supporting such an acceleration of capital work, including impacts to the 2024 recommended budget, (to be brought to council in November) the overall $20.4 billion dollar cost to fund the infrastructure to achieve the provincial housing target, and the potential impacts to the existing community.
This is in addition to other factors that include material and supply change challenges due to increased demand, the potential loss of development revenue, as well as construction contractor scarcity and the increased cost of construction.
Peel Region Council is thus requesting an audience with both provincial and federal ministries to share the impacts of the infrastructure plan and to ensure awareness and understanding of budget and community impacts in Peel.
For more details, the Council Report, presentation and video recording (1:08) are available.
Peel is clearly demonstrating the positive steps we are taking to support our provincial and local municipal partners meet their housing targets. These are challenging times and working together is the best way to build a future where everyone has a safe place to live.
Nando Iannicca, Chair, Peel Region
Significant strides are being made to support local municipalities in Peel with their housing targets, while ensuring our community continues to grow in an effective manner and ensuring value for tax dollars. Peel staff are innovating to find new ways of supporting and accelerating necessary, practical services required for this significant and recent change in growth projections. I am proud of our team for developing an unprecedented response to these recent changes.
Gary Kent, CAO
Peel's planning and engineering teams are actively responding to Bill 23 and developing alternate methods of doing business. With a typical construction timeline of up to 10 years, we’re implementing innovative practices in program management and accelerating both the planning and designing of projects to get shovels in the ground faster.
Kealy Dedman, Commissioner, Public Work
Media contact
Kieran Scott
Communications Specialist
Peel Region
About Peel's transition
The Ontario government announced the dissolution of Peel Region and the establishment of a Transition Board (TB) as part of Bill 112. The Transition Board was appointed to provide recommendations to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on a range of restructuring matters related to the dissolution of Peel Region to make Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon independent municipalities by January 1, 2025.
To learn about the Transition Board, how it will make these recommendations, and to provide feedback to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, visit Ontario's Peel Region Transition Board website.
During our transition, Peel remains committed to providing services to residents and businesses. For information about our transition, visit Peel's transition website.
About Peel Region
Peel Region works with residents and partners to create a healthy, safe and connected Community for Life for approximately 1.5 million people and over 200,000 businesses in the cities of Brampton and Mississauga and the Town of Caledon. Peel's services touch the lives of residents every day. For more information about the Region of Peel, explore peelregion.ca and follow us on Twitter @regionofpeel and Instagram @peelregion.ca.
