“Nearly all cities in Ontario must dramatically pick up the pace if they hope to hit the targets set by Premier Doug Ford’s government, the latest housing construction figures show. A year and half ago, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives set the goal of 1.5 million new homes to be built in Ontario over the course of a decade, and laid down specific housing targets for 29 of the province’s largest and fastest-growing municipalities to hit by 2031. Now trends are emerging, with some cities faring far better than others at being on track to achieve their benchmarks for getting new homes built.”

“The Association of Municipalities of Ontario said in a statement that the proposed changes [to housing rules] “may contradict the goal of building more housing in the long term.” “Unless fully offset by funding to support growth-related projects, reductions in these fees will shift the financial burden of growth-related infrastructure onto existing municipal taxpayers,” the association wrote. […] The government’s housing plan is aimed at hitting a target of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years. It also proposes to allow more units on one residential lot, introduce more housing density near transit stations, reduce the property tax burden for multi-residential apartment buildings, and pursue rent-to-own programs.”

“The Ontario government introduced legislation that would give the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa more responsibility to deliver on shared provincial-municipal priorities, including building 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years.”