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Not everyone is thrilled with the design plans for Toronto’s new island neighbourhood

A new community coming to Toronto’s waterfront as part of the eco-engineering marvel that is the Port Lands Flood Protection Project has made some particularly magnificent strides in the last few weeks, but just as the land is being primed for the new precinct, people are chiming in with a few pieces of constructive criticism.

The renaturalized, human-forged Don River valley extension has finally been filled with water that runs below the city’s shiny new bridges. The next step in the process will involve connecting the old and new rivers by removing dams placed during the construction of the waterbed.

While we’re still very far away from the advent of the condo buildings, offices, retail spaces, roads and more that will comprise the new island community, online critiques have been popping up as workers make such rapid visible progress on the site.

One voice has been noted local architecture critic Alex Bozikovic, who has spawned some further discussion about the forthcoming district’s design on X this week.

 

Among Bozikovic’s (and others’) concerns are the project’s lack of housing density, with some 9,000 homes included in the latest 2024 Demonstration Plan — a figure he thinks is perhaps “arbitrarily too low” for the 33-hectare space.

There is also some question of other aspects of the neighbourhood’s urban planning, such as the scale of the proposed streets in a time when the city is increasingly trying to de-prioritize cars, and also the dominating feel of the towers, as currently designed.

It seems that given the island presented the City with the opportunity to come up with something completely new — or at least inspired by much more successful design than we often see in Toronto — some feel a little let down with what is in the works.

As Bozikovic wrote in his posts on the topic at the end of March, he and others are “very curious to learn more about how this was designed.”

Per the blurb on the $1.25 billion sustainable project from Waterfront Toronto, planners are hoping to position Villiers as “a new waterfront community that embraces its distinct industrial functions and the spectacular new parks, public spaces and ecological richness that will result from the naturalization of the mouth of the Don River.”

“Surrounded by water on all sides, the Villiers Island precinct will introduce a vitality to the area that honours the distinctive culture associated with waterfront districts and vibrant working ports.”

Given that yet another public meeting regarding density in particular was just held on March 26, with recommendations going to City Council later in the spring, residents have yet to see the final version of what Villiers will be — which will include a new name.

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Canada’s Inflation Rate Rises To 2.9% In March

This morning, Statistics Canada (StatCan) published its anticipated March inflation report. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.9% on a year-over-year basis in March, up from a 2.8% gain in February.

Economists had predicted that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) would tick up in March thanks, in part, to an increase in gasoline prices. Gasoline prices indeed contributed the most to the acceleration, as prices at the pump rose faster in March compared with February. Excluding gasoline, the all-items CPI slowed to a 2.8% year-over-year increase, down from a 2.9% gain in February.

Last month, the annual pace of inflation cooled to 2.8% in February compared with 2.9% in January. For March, it was expected by analysts that this figure would hit 3.1%.

Shelter prices continued to apply upward pressure in March, with the mortgage interest cost and rent indexes contributing the most to the year-over-year gain in the all-items CPI, according to StatCan. Prices for services (+4.5%) continued to rise in March compared with February (+4.2%), driven by air transportation and rent, outpacing price growth for goods (+1.1%) which slowed compared with February (+1.2%) on a yearly basis.

On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.6% in March. Month-over-month price growth was broad-based. All eyes of those looking to enter the housing market were likely on the report, as it and its April figures will be highly influential in whether the central bank opts to lower its policy rate. The big question is whether the slight spike is enough for Canada’s central bank to change its direction on the interest rate front. Last week, the Bank of Canada held its key interest rate at 5%, but hinted that an interest rate cut could be on the horizon for June.

“Yes, it’s within the realm of possibilities,” Macklem said at a press conference on Wednesday, when asked by a reporter about the likelihood that the Bank will lower its policy rate at its next meeting, slated for June 5. “I think we’ve been pretty clear, we are encouraged by what we’ve seen since January. If you look at our indicators, they’re not all progressing at the same speed, but they’ve all been moving in the right direction: inflation has come down, core inflation has come down, the more timely three month measures of core inflation suggests there’s downward momentum.”

The report comes in advance of the release of the federal government’s budget later this afternoon. Front and centre in the budget is Canada’s housing crisis, with Trudeau’s government fresh from a slew of housing announcements last week that involved everything from 30-year mortgages for some first-time homebuyers, to a promise to fix the growing encampment problem.

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Canada cancels first-time home buyer incentive

Canada’s housing agency says it is ending the first-time homebuyer incentive program, which many had criticized as unhelpful.

According to the Canadian Press, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said in a notice on its website that the deadline for new or updated submissions to the program is midnight Eastern time on March 21.

The plan was meant to help first-time buyers by having the government take on partial ownership of their property.

The government offered a loan of five or 10 per cent of the purchase price that would go toward a larger down payment, with the intended goal of reducing monthly payments.

Under the program, homeowners have to repay the incentive after 25 years or when the property is sold, with the amount owing adjusted to reflect how the value of the property has changed.

The program was hampered in part by eligibility issues including limits to household income and the size of a mortgage the buyer could take on.

Total borrower income couldn’t be higher than $120,000, or $150,000 in Toronto, Vancouver or Victoria, while the total borrowing could be no more than four times the qualifying income, or 4.5 times in the three pricey cities.

The program wasn’t useful since it didn’t help buyers put together a minimum down payment, and the restrictions meant some borrowers qualified for smaller amounts than they otherwise would, said James Laird, co-CEO of Ratehub.ca and president of CanWise mortgage lender.

The government-ownership component also added complications to a convoluted program that was poorly thought out, he said.

“It was literally like they sat in a room by themselves, without anyone who understood the industry, and just made up a bunch of stuff that made no sense,” said Laird.

The government already helps first-time buyers by backing uninsured mortgages, but if they want to do more they could allow amortizations to be stretch out over 30 years, he said.

“It lowers the monthly cost … and there’s no complicated co-ownership agreement.”

The first-time homebuyer incentive was launched in 2019 with a $1.25-billion commitment. As of the end of 2022, CMHC had committed $329 million representing about 18,500 applications.

CMHC did not immediately provide a comment.

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