CLARK: Ontario’s plan to get homes built

Ontarians won’t be surprised to hear that home prices are out of control. After all, the evidence is all around us.

Just this month, a new report found that if an average young person in Ontario working a full-time job started saving for a new home, it would take until 2044 just to afford the 20% down payment. In 1976, a new home buyer only had to save for five years.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Real Estate Association found the average Ontario home today costs more than $853,000 — 10 years ago, that same home cost just $383,000.

I see every day that more and more Ontarians — especially young people — are simply giving up on the dream of home ownership altogether. We cannot afford to let this happen.

That is why our government has been working so hard to address the lack of homes in the last few months, enacting three new housing bills and dozens of policies aimed squarely at getting more homes built faster.

These policies address many of the problems that have held up new home construction in Ontario for too long — from ballooning municipal government fees and red tape, to wealthy foreign buyers crowding out hardworking Ontarians.

Unfortunately, our efforts have been met with opposition and even flat-out misinformation, often from those who previously reaped the benefit of lower home prices.

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For instance, some municipal leaders have loudly opposed our plan to reduce municipal fees and development charges on new homes — fees that are used to pay for infrastructure, but which are also directly passed onto homebuyers and renters through increased home prices.

These fees are a big part of the reason homes in Ontario have become so expensive. In the Greater Toronto Area, they now add about $116,900 to the cost of an average single-family home, and nearly $100,000 to the cost of a condo in Toronto.

What’s more, municipalities just keep raising the price. Over the past two years, municipal fees in the GTA have risen by an average of 30-36%, with Toronto alone voting to increase development charges by 46% over the next two years. As a result, municipalities throughout Ontario are now holding close to $9 billion in reserves from these fees.

Even so, our government is not proposing to eliminate these fees. We are simply removing them from affordable, non-profit and select attainable housing, as well as inclusionary zoning units, and limiting the rate of future increases on new homes.

Limiting fee increases on new homes will help keep prices in check for ordinary homebuyers, while still giving municipalities ample revenue to build infrastructure that supports future growth. This approach means getting more homes built in the near term, and it reflects the balanced approach we are taking on other housing policies.

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When it comes to the Greenbelt, for instance, our government is proposing to expand it by around 800 hectares overall, while adjusting the boundaries to support new home construction near existing communities.

These changes should lead to the building of at least 50,000 new homes in the near term — and if we don’t see progress from home builders by 2025, we will put the land straight back into the Greenbelt.

Our plan is ambitious and bold, but that’s exactly what we need to get homes built. For too long, governments at all levels have found reasons not to build and left us in the situation we’re in today.

If we are going to help the next generation of Ontarians have the same opportunities and quality of life their parents had, we can’t afford to let the naysayers and NIMBYs stand in the way. Instead, we need to back the construction of more homes of all types all across the province.

Our government’s commitment is simple: we will keep fighting so that every Ontarian — regardless of where you live or where you came from — can find a place to call home.

— Steve Clark is Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing