Development Charges

Under the Development Charges Act and its associated regulations, the Region of Waterloo collects Development Charges to recover, to the extent possible, the net growth-related costs of capital infrastructure required to service new development.

Regional Services that are currently eligible to receive funding from Development Charges are:

• Airport
• General Government
• Library
• Operations/Facilities
• Paramedic Services
• Police
• Transit
• Transportation
• Waste Management
• Water/Wastewater

For more information about how the Region invests in the community using development charges, please read the Investing in Our Community Infrastructure fact sheet. 

The RDC Brochure lists the current development charge rates for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, (please note that RDC Rates will index 4.8% on December 1^st 2024 in accordance with the Region’s Development Charge By-law. 

Regional Development Charges Effective December 1, 2024

Effective January 1, 2020, the Development Charges Interest Policy applies to the charging of interest, as permitted under sections 26.1 and 26.2 of the Development Charges Act.

The Development Charges Act requires the Region to complete a Background Study every five years in order to determine what the charges should be set at in the Regional Development Charges By-Law. Currently, the Region of Waterloo has two By-laws that govern the collection of development charges.

The Annual Adequacy of Regional Development Charge Collections Report presents analysis and commentary relating to the Region's development charge collections/reserve fund balances to assist in determining the adequacy of the RDC rates established under the current RDC By-law.

The Development Charges Transaction Report presents the annual summary of development charge transactions as required by the Development Charges Act.