On December 1, 2022 I asked about central sewer and water for the many developments in District 18 Rustico-Emerald, as well as support for infrastructure in general, and better transparency in land use planning.
Read the full transcript in the PDF file: Hansard-1 December 2022 page 20 of 29. Also see text of the debate below:
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
Mr. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve talked before about the many subdivision developments out in the central part of the Island that’s in my area, and of course, whether they’re in an unincorporated area, which there is a lot of, and whether they’re in a municipality, they all need sewer and water and roads. Ideally, centralized sewer and water is a good thing. In fact, I was talking to one subdivision developer who said they’re having to increase the price of the lots by $50,000 each just to put the sewer and water and roads, and that’s septic beds and wells and roads that are not government-owned. Even places where they’re near centralized sewer and water, municipalities lack the funding needed to connect new subdivisions to that, like in North Rustico Harbour, or there’s a couple in Cavendish Resort Municipality. I was thinking about what minister to ask this to, whether it’s transportation and infrastructure, community and fisheries, but I think it’s the department of land that makes the policies, so I’d like to ask the minister of land.
Support for centralized sewer and water
How will your department support and encourage centralized sewer and water solutions in new and existing subdivisions?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Agriculture and Land.
Ms. Compton: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Hon. member, that is a good question. We’re, right now, working to get over a number of hurdles with permits and land. We know we do need housing. We need more housing. We’ll do our very best to work with municipalities to ensure that they have the infrastructure in place that they need. Thank you.
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
Mr. Trivers: Mr. Speaker, there was an operating budget, and in the address, they talked about a municipal housing fund. We are establishing a $5 million fund with the Federation of Municipalities to work with municipalities to prepare lots for construction-ready projects that included roadways, and utilities like sewer and water, and site work. But $5 million is not a lot of money when it comes to those sorts of infrastructure projects. As well, I know that the federal government has a housing accelerator fund that includes supports such as upfront funding for investments in municipal housing planning.
Status of municipal housing fund
My question to the minister of land is: What is the status of the municipal housing fund, and is there potential to grow this fund to better achieve its objectives?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Fisheries and Communities.
Mr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That fund has actually been put over to the Federation of PEI Municipalities. They’re actually working on the guidelines and the procedures for that fund so municipalities can apply, so that they can upgrade their infrastructure as it applies to new developments. Thank you.
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald, your second supplementary.
Mr. Trivers: That’s great to hear, because we need to connect our developments to central sewer and water, we need to get good roads in there, and we need to do that for existing subdivisions as well. Outside of municipalities, often there is little transparency as to what developments are occurring. We heard the leader of the official opposition talk a little bit about that today. For example, the current process only allows consideration of submissions from any property owners within 100 metres of any proposed subdivision. This is the Planning Act for Subdivision and Development Regulations. So, this doesn’t work well in rural, unincorporated areas. Because there is no land use plan, it’s not clear what is being considered for the area as a whole. In fact, it’s not even clear how the area as a whole is considered. So, we need some solutions. Maybe the local MLA could be identified or consulted.
Transparency and land use planning
My question to the minister of land is: What options are you considering to improve this process with respect to transparency, land use planning, and public engagement?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Agriculture and Land.
Ms. Compton: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Hon. member, it’s one of my biggest goals as minister of land, is to clarify and streamline that process, and work with both transportation and environment to ensure that we can do what Islanders need in a timely fashion. But I will say, through the construction boom, we have been able to process applications quicker. I’ll also point out that we do not have a land use plan on PEI. That’s something that keeps coming up and it’s something that I will continue to work on.
Some Hon. Members: (Indistinct) Premier King: Stay tuned.
Ms. Compton: Stay tuned. I’ll also point out that other provinces like Ontario and Alberta, they’ve got wait times of a hundred days and they do have a land use plan. Halifax has 47 days. We’re averaging around 20. We’ll continue to do the work that we need to do. It definitely is on our radar, and I thank the member for the question.
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