3 minute read
How We Can Build More Homes
Central Ontario Housing Summit sheds light on necessary steps to address housing crisis
BY MIKE COLLINS-WILLIAMS
The Greater Golden Horseshoe and the whole province continue to face serious housing affordability and supply challenges that are affecting quality of life and economic competitiveness. The residential construction industry continues to advocate for policy changes to create opportunities for increasing housing supply and attainability in collaboration with municipal, provincial and federal government partners. In the spirit of collaboration, the Ontario Home Builders’ Association, the West End Home Builders’ Association and the Building Industry and Land Development Association hosted the inaugural 2024 Central Ontario Housing Summit on March 25.
Featuring several panel discussions, elected official presentations and opportunities for open dialogue, the Housing Summit provided a forum for industry and government to engage in cooperative discussions on how to address the housing shortage through smart policy and regulatory reform.
The first panel of the day focused on the wave of population growth in Central Ontario and how we’ve arrived at the current housing crisis.
The Central Ontario Housing Summit, which was the first of five housing summits in Ontario, provided an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss how to accelerate the pace of new housing construction by bringing together industry professionals and government partners and by spearheading the discussion on increasing innovation, improving productivity and accelerating housing permitting processes to build 1.5 million homes.
Collaboration, forward-thinking and the need for “no more business as usual” were cited at the Summit as paramount to addressing the housing crisis. Innovation in the housing sector is also necessary to improve productivity and build needed units much faster and more efficiently. Advancements in technology, including modular housing, automation, AI and education, are at the forefront of improving productivity and innovation while reducing materials and labour costs. All stakeholders involved in home building, both private and public, spoke about the need to take drastic actions to reform current ways of doing business and to collaborate in new and innovative ways to improving our ability to provide housing supply.
At the federal level, there is a need to advance a variety of reforms, centred on tax policy, leveraging infrastructure funding against housing results, and reforming federal approvals. The province also has a significant role in making the dream of attainable homeownership a reality by increasing density, reforming provincial taxes, building code changes, supporting municipal infrastructure growth and provincial zoning reform. Municipalities play a further vital role in getting more housing built. The expansion of as-of-right zoning and the implementation of regulations that facilitate actual development are two ways in which the private sector can deliver on housing.
“Business as usual” can no longer continue. The private and public sectors need to take drastic action to break down barriers to housing supply and work in partnership to ensure affordable, attainable and quality housing for all. OHB
