Toronto board of trade calls for regulatory reforms to spur housing growth

TORONTO — The Toronto Region Board of Trade is urging the province to amend zoning and building code rules as it says Ontario is on pace to fall well short of its goal of getting at least 1.5 million new homes built by 2031. In a report published Thursday, the board said the target is unachievable by the current deadline, which was set by the provincial government in 2022, even if housing production increases over the next five years. Based on budget forecasts, Ontario is projected to fall more than 550,000 homes short of the pace needed by 2029, according to the analysis.

It was called the housing crisis for a reason,” said board president and CEO Giles Gherson in an interview. “There’s been a lot of effort and a lot of work gone into, ‘How do we close this housing gap? How do we build houses faster?’ But the disappointing part of it is that the gap remains very, very large.” The board said that even if ambitious reforms were adopted immediately, municipalities would need to update plans, amend zoning bylaws, align infrastructure investments, service land, and process applications.

Those steps could take years, making the 2031 goal unrealistic. Gherson said the key to unlocking new development at a quicker pace is through regulatory changes. He described rules around zoning and building codes as “very fragmented” across the province, and “out of date.” In Toronto alone, builders face dozens of different requirements across the city, which makes it difficult to standardize production.

“It really adds a huge amount of cost and delay to housing development and that impacts the ability for the city to attract and retain our workforce that we need,” he said. “But also, we know it is impacting the social fabric as the next generation sees home ownership as really a pipe dream, and that’s a really big problem.” The report said Ontario should develop a provincial zoning code that provides every municipality the same framework and terminology. That code could set a baseline of what housing types can move forward without special approval, starting with townhouses and multiplexes.

The standard could also establish provincewide limits on the rules that most often block housing, such as parking, setbacks, lot coverage, height, density, and how far upper storeys must step back. Meanwhile, it recommended key changes around building codes, s…