By Pepper Parr
March 30th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
You will not get much in the way of an argument from anyone on making buying a home easier.
Today, the Ontario government introduced legislation that, if passed, will support a plan to crack down on speculators who are driving up the cost of housing, protect home buyers from predatory development practices, and create more housing options for homeowners and renters by accelerating development timelines to get more homes built faster.
The More Homes for Everyone Act outlines the next suite of concrete actions the province is taking to address Ontario’s housing crisis. This plan, built on recommendations from the Housing Affordability Task Force and the first-ever Provincial-Municipal Housing Summit, will deliver both near-term solutions and long-term commitments to provide more attainable housing options for Ontario families.
It didn’t take long for the West End Home Builders Association to put out a statement. Here is what they had to say.
The Provincial Housing Affordability Task Force hit the nail on the head – we need to build more homes. More homes on the market in Hamilton and across Ontario will give everyone a fair shot at becoming a homeowner and building a future. For the last several years we have not been building enough homes to keep up with demand. This is exactly why bold provincial intervention is critically required: to reduce red tape and bureaucratic inefficiencies while incentivizing municipalities to speed up the housing approvals process.
A development that eventually got through the application process found that it didn’t have to set up a sales office – they were sold out in two weeks. Now they are stumped and stymied by the city engineering department.
The West End Home Builders’ Association (WE HBA) is supportive of the wide range of policies proposed in the More Homes for Everyone Plan and encourages all political parties to support a quick passage of legislation prior to the Writ being dropped for the provincial election. We need action now.
Mike Collins-Williams, CEO of the West End Home Builders’ Association.
“The West End Home Builders’ Association is supportive of the measures proposed by the provincial government to speed up the planning process through the More Homes for Everyone Plan to address Southern Ontario’s growing housing crisis. Building from the Housing Affordability Task Force report, this new legislation proposes efficient, targeted policies that recognize the need to get all kinds of new housing built faster in communities across the province,” says Mike Collins-Williams, CEO of the West End Home Builders’ Association.
WE HBA notes that the provincial government regards the Housing Affordability Task Force Report as Ontario’s long-term housing road map. Our members support the immediate measures in the proposed More Homes for Everyone Plan to encourage more timely municipal decision making and to streamline approval processes. The government has indicated that there will be additional measures implemented over the long-term through the establishment of a Housing Supply Working Group and future Housing Supply Action Plans.
The housing crisis is a complex issue that requires a long-term strategy and commitment from all levels of government and industry to work together as partners, to build the necessary supply of housing for a rapidly growing population.
Housing is a complex business as is the process that puts in place the regulations that set out the costs of completing a development application.
Recently Burlington city Council had to defer the determination of what planning application rates would be put in place. BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association) and WE HBA took months of back and forth meetings and questioning the consultant that had prepared the report that set out what the rates would be.
In the end there was no appreciable difference between the end result and what was proposed in the first place.
The city manager mentioned during one of the meetings that the work the consultants were doing at the extra meeting was above and beyond what they had been hired to do – and that the city was going to have to get a retainer in place for the additional hours
That phrase – if the shoe fits – wear it; would seem appropriate right about now.
Right on Susie
We are the envy of the world with our vast empty spaces apart from farm land and “green belts”
Why not plan for new cities with appropriate infrastructure instead of intensification.
Feel that there is too much tunnel vision on action being directed for developments that once quickly moved forward, have no chance of reversal. The bigger long term picture, and the present intricacies of infrastructure, are not being handled efficiently to handle the masses. Our country is large and we are not utilizing our vastness, just super crowding areas that are already maxed, leading to a future of crisis.