This Just In

An e-mail from B.I.L.D. Liason.

Aurora's  single family development charge, including York Region  and education charges is $48,799.

It's among the highest in the Region.

It means of a new unit of housing  worth three hundred thousand dollars ,one sixth of the price is a development charge levy;  tax.

It does not include provincial sales tax, federal sales tax, land transfer tax, the cost of roads, water and sewer infrastructure. Trees to be planted. Lots to be sodded .Parkland to be provided.Environmentally sensitive lands to be dedicated and Ontario Municipal Board Hearings to be paid for.

Like I said before.  Nobody seems to be watching.

The building industry  keeps tabs and circulates the information. But they are not likely to create controversy over it. They buy tables at charity functions and fill them with politicians. They invite  leaders as guest speakers to stay in their good books.  Some, on the inside,  pay thousands for a seat at the table of a private dinner in a residence with a leader in  hopes of a fair wind in their direction.

In the building industry, time is money. They  bend over backwards and twist themselves into  pretzels  to get their hands on permits and get on with the business they are in.They employ or do not employ  thousands and almost single-handedly maintain the economy.

Bureaucrats, who produce nothing,  have the power  to make or break them. And they do.

In the end,  new homebuyers  pay the freight. They don't even know it. After they've made the purchase, they don't want to know it. They're too busy with two parents out to work to pay the mortgage and  child care fees.

The politicians response to the problem is to make universal child care programs available to those working parents who can afford them. So that our children, the nation's true wealth, can be raised in institutions. to fit into a society  run by institutions.

The same institutions that calculate development charges.

Deaf and blind and with  no shortage of chatter and numbers about best industry practices.

Well why should they care. It's  the source of their security.