Barbara Patrocinio

Reporter

The Ford government's new housing bill will give publicly-funded universities more control over their infrastructure and limit third-party appeals of official plan and zoning changes.

It would also eliminate requirements for parking spaces in developments near major public transit stations and bring in promised “use-it-or-lose-it” rules that will get developers starting construction.

This would include GO trains, subways and light rail routes, meaning that people living near major transit stations would not necessarily have parking spaces provided in their new homes.

The government tabled the long-teased bill on Wednesday afternoon as it looks to meet its goal of adding 1.5 million homes by 2031. Last month's budget projected 88,000 housing starts projected in 2024, which is far less than the 125,000 new homes Housing Minister Paul Calandra said were needed to keep pace with population growth. 

Among the most notable changes, the bill would grant publicly-funded universities greater control over development on campuses, giving the responsibility for their own infrastructure, including its planning and development, without being subject to municipal control.

Basically, this means that publicly university-led housing projects will receive special status and exemptions in order to get started faster, by being exempted from the Planning Act, the provincial rules for housing construction in Ontario.

Another significant change is the scrapping of the development charge phase-in period introduced in the Ford government’s housing bill from 2022, Bill 23.

This bill cut the fees municipalities impose on development over a five-year period, which raised the cost of building homes.

Housing expert Mike Moffatt explains that municipalities had to discount 20 per cent of their development charges in 2022 if they had approved a new development charge by-law for that year or onwards. The discount would decrease each year by five per cent for the period of five years, and then the full rate could be charged.

Moffatt says the change can backfire and make building housing even harder.

“Now municipal governments can do the full development charge increases right away, but this can be a big challenge. We are going to see tens of thousands of dollars added to development charges in municipalities across Ontario, which is going to make it even more difficult and expensive to build housing,” Moffatt explained.

Opposition parties were quick to slam the government for falling short on housing. 

Green Leader Mike Schreiner on Wednesday called Bill 23 a “disaster.”

“It was introduced like a year and a half ago, and literally the government has wasted all of that time, with all the reversals, because they were really designed to benefit a handful of wealthy, well-connected, Ford insiders instead of actually building homes that people can afford in their community,” Schreiner said.

Under the new bill, municipalities will also be required to have policies that allow staff to relocate water and waste water expansions from delayed development projects to those that are on time or expected to progress faster.

It also limits third-party appeals of official plans, amendments, zoning by-laws, and zoning bylaw amendments .

Limiting certain appeals was one of the affordability task force recommendation. Moffatt said that if this goes further, it could also be a bit of a double edged sword.

“Right now, if a municipality comes up with an official plan that is very restrictive, or that doesn't allow for enough building to  accommodate population growth, somebody, like a developer, could appeal that. Now they can’t,” he said.

“This could be a challenge, and could cause at least some municipalities making it more difficult to build. It certainly gives municipalities more power to come up with official plans that won't be overridden by the province.”

But Calandra said that there is nothing to worry about on this end.

"There will still be a lot of involvement and consultation in the development of official plans and in amendments or applications throughout the process,” he explained.

“But once that decision has been made, we want to move forward as quickly as possible, so that is the direction that we've chosen for the builders. We think it'll help schedule them down faster.”

The bill includes the “use it or lose it" policy, which gives municipalities the power to redirect infrastructure from a development project if it hasn’t made enough progress.

Cities would then be able to pivot infrastructure to projects that are ready to start, as well as set clear timelines to remove approvals from developments that are taking too long.

Moffatt says municipalities have been asking for the change for a long time now.

“Developers will often ask for zoning changes on a specific site, get those changes and then sometimes for whatever reason, they don't go ahead with the development,” Moffatt said.

“So this really frustrates the municipalities because they feel like they wasted their time and resources.”

This bill would also change how water and wastewater infrastructure are distributed. Cities build them to connect developments and municipal systems, so the changes would allow cities and towns to move around which projects get connected to servicing based on how close they are to actually start the construction of new homes.

But the bill does not include a recommendation made by the province’s own housing task force to require municipalities to allow fourplexes as-of-right across the province.

Premier Doug Ford ruled out the recommendation earlier this spring, even though the federal government has made it a precondition for provinces to get a slice of a new infrastructure fund.

Premier Ford rules out fourplex construction as-of-right in Ontario despite taskforce recommendation

“Municipalities know their communities best. They know where it made sense to build homes,” Calandra explained.

“And that's why we're supporting them by giving them the funding and the tools they need to build more homes and to build the infrastructure needed for all types. My focus has been to identify the struggles municipalities are facing to build homes and to work with them to implement strategies and targeted solutions."

The government has also introduced a new process for the minister's zoning orders (MZOs), which is a special exception made that allows the local planning authority to approve development without expert analysis, public input, or any chance of appeal.

The PC government has often used it to circumvent normal local planning procedures. Now, MZOs could be requested with local council approval or with a letter from a mayor in possession of the province’s new “strong-mayor” powers, while proponents would have to conduct public consultations and Indigenous consultation beforehand.

The move was slammed by the Official Opposition NDP.

“They try it, it doesn't work. They try it again… and it doesn't work. What we want is transparency and consistency," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

"If an MZO process is going to be used to expand Toronto, Western or approve an affordable housing project, it makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't make any sense to create a process where developers that are friendly with the government can just go and get their projects approved."p

Calandra said the changes in the MZOs process were made because “people wanted it to be a more open and transparent process.”

“The new process will require that who, what, where, when and why be posted on the environmental registry for 30 days of public consultation. I think people made it very clear that they wanted more transparency in the process,” Calandra said.

Bonnie Crombie, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, slammed the bill as unserious.

"Rather than legalizing gentle density, Paul Calandra introduced a random grab-bag of small-ball measures the Ford government could have done years ago if they were serious about building housing,” she said on X.

“This bill will not get the job done, but Ontario’s Liberals will.”

Calandra countered that the new bill is a “targeted approach” based on what the government heard from the home builders, and called Crombie’s record of building housing “one of the worst... in the province of Ontario."

“'ll take no advice from the mayor of Mississauga on how to get shovels in the ground. Instead, I'll work with my municipal partners,” Calandra said.

The government doesn’t have specific projections on how many new homes the changes will help build. Ontario needs at least 150,000 housing starts per year to meet the 2031 target of 1.5 million homes by 2031, and even with the province counting long-term care beds and university dorms towards the target, Moffatt said it would be hard for them to make it.

"Even including long-term care beds and students housing, i still think they have a long way to go," he said.

Stiles said that she is “sorry to say that today's legislation lets all of those people down again.”

“This is a weak bill. It lacks ambition. It lacks boldness and it lacks urgency. The bill makes clear that this government doesn't want or perhaps knows how to take seriously the urgency of this housing crisis,” Stiles said.

“This bill won't make it easier for you to find a home that you can afford or protect you from illegal eviction.

But Moffatt said that overall the bill “balances out” good and bad measures.

“While the university piece is a good one, allowing for a single stairway for four-story apartment buildings can also be helpful, but the changes to development charges and the lack of third-party appeals on official plans, and even the use it or lose it policy, are moves in the wrong direction,” he said.

“So, three steps forward, three steps back.”

Housing expert Mike Moffatt said the new bill is "three steps forward, three steps back."

Ontario tables new housing bill

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