Dozens request to speak at special Saskatoon HAF council meeting

The City of Saskatoon has received and registered 59 speakers, and 373 letters submitting comments for Thursday’s  “Public Hearing Special City Council” meeting.

The meeting is being held to review and potentially make changes to some of Saskatoon’s city bylaws to allow the city to access $41.3 million in funding from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

The HAF is a $4 billion initiative to try and get 100,000 new homes across the country built over the next three years.

According to the City of Saskatoon, the council approved a “Housing Action Plan” in May 2023. The plan outlines 13 initiatives that are expected to meet the commitments and criteria of the federal government.

The hope is to get 940 affordable housing units built that don’t fall into the single-family housing or mid- to high-rise apartment types.

In early Feb. 2024, the City of Saskatoon and the federal government jointly released a plan that would “speed up home development near transit and in downtown Saskatoon. Other zoning changes will allow four units as-of-right, across the city, as well as greater building height near transit and more density near post-secondary institutions.”

Two mayoral candidates have so far expressed their opposition to the proposed bylaw changes, including Gordon Wyant. In a statement, Wyant called for a pause on making the bylaw decisions so quickly.

“We must ensure that any changes we make benefit the entire city, without compromising the unique character and needs of our diverse neighbourhoods,” he said.

Candidate Cary Tarasoff also filed a lawsuit against the city on June 21, 2024. The lawsuit contains six “causes of action,” and claims that property owners will be stripped of their inherent rights and that neighbourhoods could be substantially changed without any of their concerns having merit.

It also claims that the potential HAF bylaw changes could cause permanent losses to existing property owners who border or are near any future development allowed for under the HAF and that the city has not previously informed land owners when buying properties that their rights could be revoked or changed without their approval – at any point in the future.

However, during Wednesday’s city council meeting Councillor Cynthia Block, who is also running for mayor, said the city is under tremendous pressure to supply housing, and asked Lesley Anderson, Director of Planning and Development, to explain that.

“We have a very tight timeline on the overall funding program,” Anderson explained.”We have a package of funds that the city can use for identified initiatives…but we have to spend it by a period of time into 2027.”

The majority of the funding she added, would go to affordable housing initiatives.

“We need time for those projects to be able to actually get built in this time frame,” she said.

The city has put out a first round in a call for incentives which closes on July 5, using the HAF funding, with the stipulation that the city actually has the money to do so.

“So, if at the end of the day, our bylaw approach for the Housing Accelerator Fund is not approved, we are not likely to have that funding,” she said.

The city would then not be able to support its affordable housing projects.

The meeting gets underway at 9:30 a.m.