By Staff
November 12th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
For the twenty-eighth successive month, the Ontario PCs’ approach will fail to spur the housing starts needed to improve affordability and create jobs, according to September building permit data from Statistics Canada released today.
Just prior to the June 2022 election, Dour Ford’s own Housing Affordability Task Force reported the residential construction industry needs to start building 12,500 housing units every month to bring price balance to the housing market.
In September, building permits for just 8,445 new Ontario housing units were approved, more than 4,000 units below the monthly need.
Month after month, Data Shows has reported on how various nudges on and supplements to the housing market by BC’s NDP government has spurred monthly housing starts often double those in Ontario, adjusted for size.
But the Ford PCs won’t follow the proven path the BC government has created. They won’t even follow their own advice.
Planning for sprawl puts land speculators in charge
More than two years after endorsing the Task Force report, many of its 55 recommendations remain untouched. Earlier this year the Ford government reversed course on requiring high density around transit hubs and rejected calls to allow fourplex construction.
Explaining his inaction, the Conservative premier has blamed his fear of “shouting and screaming” from density opponents. By blocking density and using provincial planning powers to develop housing through land sprawl, the Ford PCs have turned large-scale land speculators into housing construction gatekeepers.
Fraser Institute Report on Housing
Slowing housing supply adds upward pressure on prices, a helpful outcome for land owners. But constricting supply destroys housing affordability and holds back job creation in the residential housing construction sector.
In contrast, a strategy using provincial planning powers to create land parcels within urban centres, by-passing land speculators and giving priority to housing constructors, has gone entirely untried.
Using Burlington as a proxy for what is wrong with this mandate, what is the number 1 reason why Burlington will not meet 29,000 units by 2031.
The federal government’s recent policy change on immigration projects a population decline for the next two years and then very moderate increases. This policy change acknowledges that the previous strategy was not sustainable and caused significant stresses for our country.
Construction is a short term economic stimulus but is not addressing the longer term needs of the population such as medical staff to offer health care, educational staff to teach our children and manufactured goods that we need in our daily living. Buildings are nothing but shells if they are not built with the needs of people in mind.
For too long, we have focussed on the short term without considering sustainability of our Canadian population. The pandemic should have been a lesson that we can act on. In order for our country to support others, we need to be strong within ourselves.
The City of Burlington should also adapt -recognizing the upper level policy changes and coming to terms that the City’s assessment (and revenue) growth could also be limited going forward. Hopefully our Council will adapt quickly and rethink the dramatic increase in debt that they took on last year and develop a cautious and more realistic plan for the future. It is time for a serious look at the City’s expenses – looking for efficiencies rather than making long term cost commitments that property taxpayers can’t bare.
The current focus on growth, potentially misguided, may have a long term negative impact on our City. We too should be focussed on a stable economic strategy and sustainability, building on our strengths. We should focus on the ahead rather than focussing on the rear view mirror to keep our City as a desirable place to live.
I’m shocked. I’m sure that Sean Fraser said that his housing accelerator fund was building record numbers of homes. You mean it isn’t?