Fewer Ontario cities will hit housing targets amidst ‘major crisis’: minister

Ontario’s housing minister is conceding that the number of new homes in the province is stuttering and his government won’t be able to hand out incentive rewards to many cities for hitting their targets, but says he hopes new legislation will help.

On Friday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack accepted that the number of new homes in Ontario was lagging far behind the targets the province set itself, calling the situation “a major crisis” across Canada.

“I can tell you, housing starts are down, we know that,” Flack said at a news conference in Toronto.

The Ford government has set itself a target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031, winning a large majority in the 2022 provincial election under the promise.

To meet that target, Ontario needed to see an average of 150,000 new housing starts every year for the decade.

The province has yet to get close to that number — and created a funding pot and targets for cities to try and reach the goal. A chunk of $1.2 billion was set aside over three years to be handed out to cities, ranked by their success in building new homes.

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Last year, Premier Doug Ford and his then-housing minister toured the province, presenting giant cheques to cities that had achieved their 2023 housing goals. That year, Ontario achieved its lower goal of 110,000 homes by adding 10,000 long-term care beds and 10,000 basement or backyard units to the statistics.

Flack indicated that this year, even with beds and basements thrown in, the province wouldn’t hit its goal.

“We’re going to hand out some nice building faster cheques — not as many and not for as much this year as we did last year,” Flack said. “That’s why we came up with Bill 17 to build the conditions to build more homes, faster.”

Data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows housing starts are currently down roughly 35 per cent year-over-year.

Bill 17 is Flack’s first major piece of housing legislation since becoming the minister in March. Among other changes, it takes aim at development charges, looking to standardize the fees homebuilders pay to municipalities and delay when they have to be handed over, in some cases.

Major parts of the legislation were agreed to by a major municipal association and a group representing homebuilders.

Flack said he believed the legislation could begin to move the needle. He has said the goal of 1.5 million homes remains his target.

“We know the numbers are down, but if we don’t make the changes like we did in Bill 17, we’re never going to hit our targets,” he said.

The minister also promised to release months-delayed housing data, which will show which cities have hit their targets and how many long-term care beds have been added to boost the headline figure.

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