Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council decided to opt out of the provincial government’s new Development Charge Reduction Program (DCRP) during its regular meeting on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
On June 1, 2026, the Province of Ontario announced the launch of the DCRP as part of the Canada-Ontario Partnership to Build, a joint initiative providing up to $8.8 billion in infrastructure funding over ten years.
“The main goal of the program is to accelerate housing supply and improve affordability by reducing upfront costs for developers, while also providing municipalities with funding to offset some of this lost revenue, specifically for housing-enabling infrastructure, such as roads, water, and wastewater works that directly support new development,” said Denise Krug, Director of Finance/Treasurer.
In order to qualify for the DCRP, municipalities must reduce development charges (fees collected from developers to help pay for infrastructure) by at least 30 per cent to 50 per cent for all residential unit types, maintain the reduction for a minimum of three years, and submit eligible housing-enabling infrastructure projects.
“Applications are evaluated based on the size of the DC reduction; larger reductions are viewed more favourably, the number of housing units enabled, and the municipality’s financial contribution to the project,” said Krug. “The minimum is ten per cent that the municipality must contribute, and the Province and the Government of Canada would contribute the other 90 per cent to projects.”
According to the report, the Township has already completed its major growth-related infrastructure projects, and were financed through debt, with future DC revenues expected to fund repayment.
The remaining projects within the ten-year capital plan have a total value of $3.285-million, include only $297,395 in DC-eligible components and primarily benefit existing development rather than enabling new growth.
“The township is in a different position than a lot of other municipalities, in that most of our major growth-related infrastructure has already been completed, namely the Princeton Road Stormwater project and the Princeton Fire Hall. So, the only projects that are eligible are projects where construction has not yet started, as with most government grants,” said Krug. “Remaining projects that are in our ten-year capital plan and our DC background study are primarily benefiting existing development. Only a small portion are supporting new growth. Because of this, our projects are unlikely to be considered as housing-enabling, and this impacts our competitiveness for funding.”
She continued, “Even in the very best case scenario, maximum potential funding is approximately $267,000. If you look at our ten-year capital plan, there’s about just under $300,000 of DC eligibility on a total capital of $3.285 million, so it’s a very small portion that’s supporting growth. However, if we reduced our DCs by 30 per cent we’re looking at almost a $500,000 revenue loss, and if we reduce them by 50 per cent, we’re looking at an $800,000 revenue loss. This creates a clear net financial loss with the high risk that we receive no funding at all and this creates a risk to taxpayers.”
Following her presentation, Mayor Mark Peterson said that while Oxford County voted in favour of opting in to the program, he wasn’t sure it was suitable for the Township of Blandford-Blenheim.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’ll be shocked if any of the money even comes to our county; it may or it may not,” he said. “…I’m thinking that a lot of this money is going to go to the GTA area, if not most of it. That’s just my guess. I don’t know. I’d be shocked if it comes here, to be very honest with you, especially at our level here.”
He later said that while the Township’s communities need to grow in order to stay alive, he wasn’t comfortable with the funding model and risking the taxpayers having to pay more.
Councillor Nancy Demarest also shared some of her concerns.
“If we adopted this 30, 40 or 50 per cent reduction, we would have to make up between $214,000 and $536,000 in funds that we would otherwise get through the DC program,” she said. “We have such a small municipality that we don’t have a lot of choice in how we recoup that, and because we have such a low percentage of commercial/industrial, it ends up, like Denise said, on the back of the taxpayers, which isn’t fair in my opinion, for new development.”
Demarest said while it may be a good program in general, it’s not an ideal program for small, rural municipalities.
“It may work for Oxford County, maybe even Ingersoll or Woodstock, but it doesn’t work here,” she said. “…It doesn’t make a material change, and it doesn’t affect the average home buyer’s decision by potentially reducing the price by $6,000 or $6,500. Even if the developer does pass it on, it’s kind of irrelevant for us.”
Councillor Tina Young also shared a similar sentiment.
“I think this is probably a positive program in maybe larger municipalities,” she said. “I’m all for decreasing the cost of homes for buyers and for people for affordable homes, but I’m not sure this is the way to do that.”
In the end, Council voted to not apply for DCRP, and directed staff to monitor future funding opportunities that are tailored to small, rural communities instead.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
