Peterborough’s Pickleball Courts Controversy: In a recent Peterborough City Council meeting, Councillor Keith Riel made an unexpected suggestion that caught his colleagues off guard. Riel proposed deferring six infrastructure projects, including the construction of pickleball courts and road improvements, to free up nearly $16 million. His goal was to redirect these funds toward addressing the city’s housing and homelessness crisis.
“I felt there were some projects, even though they’re great projects—there’s nothing wrong with them—I just felt that we could defer them. Certainly use the $15.95 million for housing and homelessness.” – (Riel)
However, not all council members were on board with Riel’s idea. Some were hesitant, particularly since city staff pointed out that many of the funds allocated for these projects were tied to specific government grants and couldn’t be easily repurposed.
The Reality of Budget Constraints
Riel’s proposal came as the council debated the 2025 budget, where they faced the difficult task of deciding whether to impose a hard cap of five percent on property tax increases. The debate highlighted a broader dilemma faced by municipalities across Ontario: how to manage limited resources while addressing urgent housing needs.
Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, emphasized the severity of the issue.
“I think this whole situation draws attention to how dire the problem of homelessness is, and how limited are the resources that municipalities have to deal with this issue.” – (Siemiatycki)
Peterborough, a city with a population of around 80,000, shows that the housing crisis is not confined to Canada’s largest cities.
“Peterborough, it turns out, has the second-highest per capita rate of emergency shelters in the province of Ontario. So this is a problem that exists in communities large and small across Ontario.” – (Siemiatycki)
Municipal Challenges and Responsibilities
The struggle faced by Peterborough is indicative of a larger trend across the country. Laura Pin, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, pointed to the historical underfunding of social housing as a significant factor in today’s crisis.
“We have a period from the early 1990s to the early 2010s where the federal government basically built no social housing. And now we’re shocked that we have an affordable housing crisis that’s playing out in our local communities.” – (Pin)
Pin also noted that municipalities have increasingly taken on more responsibilities, including social services and housing, without receiving the necessary funding to support these roles.
“Municipalities historically have been responsible for things like local roads, sewer, recreation facilities. And right now, I think municipalities are in a really tough situation because they’re increasingly responsible for more social services and more of the housing portfolio without commensurate revenue-raising tools.” – (Pin)
The Need for Government Support
The financial constraints faced by municipalities are further increased by the limited revenue tools available to them, primarily relying on property taxes. As Siemiatycki pointed out,
“Of all the tax revenues that the people of Canada throw into a pot, less than $0.10 goes to municipalities.”
The removal of development charges by the Ford government in 2022 through Bill 23 has also had a significant impact. “Development charges were one of the ways that municipalities paid for infrastructure,” Pin noted, highlighting how this loss has made it even more difficult for municipalities to fund essential services.
Siemiatycki argued that the responsibility shouldn’t fall solely on municipal governments.
“It shouldn’t come to starving necessary other municipal services to address the homelessness problem. Municipalities need the resources, the funding, the support from senior levels of government in order to tackle the housing problem, which is lived and experienced at the municipal level.” – (Siemiatycki)
With limited assistance from higher levels of government, municipalities like Peterborough are left to handle the housing crisis with the tools they have—often forcing them to make difficult decisions between critical infrastructure and essential housing initiatives.
News in Brief: Peterborough’s Pickleball Courts Controversy
In Peterborough, Councillor Keith Riel proposed deferring six infrastructure projects, including pickleball courts, to allocate nearly $16 million toward housing and homelessness. The suggestion, made during a 2025 budget debate, highlights the broader challenge faced by Ontario’s municipalities as they grapple with limited resources and a growing housing crisis.
Experts like Myer Siemiatycki and Laura Pin emphasize the need for greater support from higher levels of government to address these issues, as municipalities struggle to fulfill increasing responsibilities with insufficient funding.
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