Opposition to building homes in Ontario will only worsen affordability

By
Millicent Wong
-
0
204
Finance post top stories banner

  1. property

Insufficient housing supply is the primary contributor to unaffordable housing prices and rents

Homes being built in Brantford, Ontario. Homes being built in Brantford, Ontario. Photo by Brian Thompson/Brantford Expositor/Postmedia Network Files

After decades of frustrating inaction, the Ontario government has a plan to quickly build many more homes by setting new construction targets and proposing sweeping changes to the governance structure needed to implement the plan.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Despite the urgency to address the supply shortages that have accumulated over the past five decades, critics are doing all they can to maintain the status quo of inadequate housing supply, which is a major contributor to unaffordable home prices and rents.

By clicking the subscribe button, you agree to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter. Postmedia Network Inc | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

Ontario’s plan isn’t perfect — no plan ever is — but it does present a chance at last to solve the province’s supply problems. The status quo of not building homes is and has never been an option when the goal is for people to have affordable housing.

The first of two major Ontario initiatives is Bill 23, also known as the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, which introduces a series of land-use planning changes to cut red tape and sets explicit, non-binding targets for large communities to build new homes.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

The other initiative empowers the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, the province’s most populous municipalities, to take decisive action on housing developments without garnering the support of a majority of council members, who often vote to approve new developments at the behest of their NIMBY (Not in My Backyard ) components.

The opponents of these plans are different, but they have some things in common. Many are supply skeptics who pay lip service to the notion that we need more housing but are unwilling to do much to get there.

Others are sticklers for the status quo who want to “preserve” the spirit of their neighborhood, a polite way of saying they want to keep new citizens out of their areas. Then there are the planners, some of whom have been taught a Soviet-style central planning system that sets ad hoc limits on what land can be farmed and at what intensity. Most builders and developers struggle for years to have these plans and by-laws changed, causing delays and inflated prices and rents.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Some believe empowering mayors disenfranchises local officials, which is hardly true. Municipal representatives are free to represent their voters in all matters except the blockade of new housing construction.

Consider that Toronto Mayor John Tory received more votes from citizens than the sum of all votes received from elected council members. Shouldn’t executive powers be weighted by the support each voting member of the council, including the mayor, received in local elections?

Premier Doug Ford came into office with a promise to build more housing, and voters overwhelmingly backed the Conservative platform, electing 83 of its candidates, more than twice as many seats as all other parties combined.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

If democracy can be trusted, Ontario voters overwhelmingly approved plans for more housing in June’s provincial elections. Empowering NIMBY types and their enablers is hardly a pro-democracy advocate.

  1. Office buildings in downtown Toronto.

    Working from home is here to stay and that has consequences for homes and offices

  2. The Auditor General finds that the Ontario Real Estate Council is failing in its mandate to protect consumer interests.

    Ontario needs to overhaul its real estate regulator to protect the interests of homebuyers and sellers

  3. A for sale sign outside a home in Toronto.

    The housing market is showing signs of life, but it’s too early to celebrate a recovery

However, we support some suggestions from critics. First of all, we believe that the plan to permit construction of 7,400 acres of the green belt should be put on hold pending further study. We are aware that the province will expand the green belt by 9,400 acres to compensate for the land removed, but first we need to understand why such a move might be necessary.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

First of all, not every square foot of the Green Belt’s two million acres is environmentally sensitive land. Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley identified several parcels that were not used for agriculture and, in some cases, are enclosed by the development surrounding them. Building on non-sensitive land that already has roads, sewers and pipes should not be discouraged just because it is part of the green belt.

Critics also argue that development should target already built-up areas first, leading to intensification. We couldn’t agree more. However, NIMBYism thwarts or delays any plans to intensify. Because of this, we need additional powers for mayors to act for the good of the city or province, even if it conflicts with the aspirations of local people to maintain the status quo.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

We want to go further and recommend building affordable, family-friendly housing before committing funds and resources to building larger, more expensive homes.

Land, labor and capital are in short supply, all the more so due to pandemic-related disruptions. Focusing first on family-friendly housing, with a significant proportion of purpose-built rental housing, can help Ontario meet affordability goals sooner than waiting for trickle-down benefits that can take years, if not decades.

Murtaza Haider is Professor of Real Estate Management and Director of the Urban Analytics Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. Stephen Moranis is a real estate industry veteran. They can be reached at the Haider-Moranis Bulletin website, www.hmbulletin.com.

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Remarks

Postmedia strives to maintain a vibrant but civilized forum for discussion and encourages all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour to be moderated before they appear on the site. We ask that you keep your comments relevant and respectful. We’ve turned on email notifications – you’ll now receive an email when you get a reply to your comment, there’s an update on a comment thread you follow, or when a user you follow comments follows. For more information and details on how to customize your email settings, see our Community Guidelines.