Ahead of the provincial election this summer, the Ford government released its new housing plan last week.
This plan comes after the recommendations of the Housing Affordability Task Force released its report back in February. It also follows talks between municipal leaders, Doug Ford and Steve Clark in January.
Here are some of my thoughts on the Ford government’s new plan.
The Good
There are some decent portions of the plan that tackle the red tape that gets in the way of building housing.
One of the main findings of the Housing Affordability Task Force was that municipalities were spending far much time doing consultations. If you’ve ever attended any of these consultation meetings, you’ll find that these meetings are dominated by NIMBY homeowners who scorn at the idea of building more housing for new people wishing to move into their community.
Under the Ford government’s housing plan, municipalities will have to forgo at least a part of the development fees if a development doesn’t get approved within 60 days. This will hopefully get things built a lot faster.
The changes to code are also welcome additions. Allowing 12-storey mass timber buildings and encouraging more modular multi-unit developments are good steps in the right direction.
But Ford’s plan isn’t a home run and not every proposal outlined in the document will help making housing more affordable. In my next post, I’ll look at some of the proposals that fall flat as well as what’s missing from the plan.
Photo credit: VV Nincic/Flickr/(CC BY 2.0)
