
2025 Ontario Budget Affirms Province's Promise to Build Homes Faster and Improve Affordability
TORONTO, May 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 'The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) is proud to champion REALTOR®-led solutions to bring affordability back and get more homes built that Ontarians can actually afford. In the past eight years, we have worked closely with the Government of Ontario, supporting pro-growth, pro-housing policies.
Today's 2025 Ontario Budget reaffirms the Province's commitment to continue building on that work, proposing to invest millions more in housing-enabling infrastructure to speed up new housing construction, reduce delays, and streamline planning.
OREA is pleased to see several pro-homeownership solutions mentioned in the budget, including:
Providing $50 million over five years to grow industrial capacity in modular (factory-built) construction and other innovative housing solutions – a key to solving the supply and affordability crisis, as outlined in OREA's Building More, Building Faster report;
Investing an additional $400 million into housing-enabling infrastructure, like water and wastewater projects, through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF) and the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program (MHIP);
Fast-tracking planning and approvals for province-building projects to help protect the economy, create jobs, and encourage new housing developments; and
Providing an additional $5 billion to the Building Ontario Fund to co-invest in key priority areas, including affordable housing.
The Ford government's investment in factory-built housing, as recommended by Ontario REALTORS®, is a welcomed inclusion in today's budget. Now is the time to keep their foot on the gas and continue to support policies to bring affordability back for Ontarians and their families, including further reducing or eliminating municipal development charges (MDCs), ending exclusionary zoning, and helping further scale innovative approaches to development.
Ontario REALTORS® thank Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy and Premier Doug Ford for championing the pro-housing measures in this budget. We look forward to continuing our work together with all levels of government and industry partners to ensure Ontarians can continue to find a great place to call home.'
For more information, please contact:
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CTV News
41 minutes ago
- CTV News
‘To say that our American sales fell off a cliff would not be an exaggeration:' Calgary wine store owner
Andrew Ferguson, the owner of the Kensington Wine Market, said sales of U.S. liquor have 'fallen off a cliff'. Sales of American booze have 'fallen off a cliff' for one Calgary wine store owner, but luckily for the Kensington Wine Market, it's a pretty shallow cliff. After it was confirmed that Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) will resume selling American liquor products after a three-month pause, Kensington Wine Market owner Andrew Ferguson said that they never actually went away. "They are bringing it back but they're bringing it back with a tariff on it,' he said. 'I think it might surprise people in Alberta, but stores and restaurants have not been prevented from buying American products for the past three months -- but I think like most, we've seen a massive decrease in demand for it." On Friday, the AGLC announced it will 'resume accepting liquor products from the United States, effective immediately,' at the direction of the provincial government. This will affect all liquor products registered with the AGLC and declared to Canada Border Services Agency. Products that were shipped from the U.S. after March 4 will continue to be subject to a surtax of 25 per cent of the invoice price, the AGLC added. 'I think when it all went down, I think a lot of people thought, 'oh, you're going to just stop selling this stuff immediately,'' Ferguson said, 'but they don't realize that before a bottle of bourbon or wine or Canadian whiskey or whatever gets delivered to our stores, we have to pay for it. 'So we already own that stuff -- so the idea that we aren't going to sell something that we've already paid for is a bit tough (to swallow),' he said. What really changed, he said, was the appetite among customers for made-in-the-U.S.A. booze. 'It's a big drop in demand,' he said. 'The natural depletion of a case of wine – like maybe we'll sell through in about two or three weeks -- but we've had some where we haven't even sold (through) an American case in three months." Ferguson said U.S. liquor generally amounts to around 10 per cent of his sales, but that has gone down since Trump's tariffs were announced. 'There are still people buying it (U.S. alcohol) and we don't take a place of judgement on it – (but) we've (also) got lots of alternatives for them,' he said. 'I'd say by and large the bigger response has been 'I want a bottle of whiskey for cocktails or I want a bottle of wine. I don't want an American product.'" 'By and large, the disproportionate response has been more the other way,' he added. 'And for those people that want to continue to purchase their favourite American products, we still carry a lot of them but not as many as we might have had three months ago.' Support Canadian producers The initial decision was made to support Canadian producers in the wake of U.S. tariffs, Premier Danielle Smith said in March. 'If the Americans aren't going to buy products from our Canadian companies, we have to,' the premier said. 'That means we should be buying more Canadian beer, more Canadian spirits and more Canadian wine. And so that's the reality of what we're facing.' Ferguson said there was plenty of alternatives to American liquor. 'Whether it's wine or especially beer here in Alberta, or spirits, there's a lot of great alternatives,' he said. 'So if you want an alternative to bourbon, we've got alternatives to bourbon here. 'We've got great wines, not only from Canada but other countries with which we have a fair trading relationship.' Lifting restrictions In a statement Friday night, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally said the government lifting restrictions on the purchase of U.S. alcohol and video lottery terminals signals a 'renewed commitment to open and fair trade with our largest partner.' 'The decision sets the stage for more constructive negotiations ahead of a Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement renewal, potentially leading to increased trade opportunities and economic growth for Alberta,' Nally added. Ferguson said the lack of clarity and unpredictability of the supply chain created by Trump's tariffs is taking a toll on consumer habits. 'Maybe they (the UCP) know something we don't,' he said, 'that there's a trade deal that's coming soon between Canada and the U.S. and this is a way to offer a bit of a carrot. 'What we've seen overall,' he addedm '(is that) consumer demand is down, consumers are worried about their money -- and so the longer this drags on, the harder it's going to be on retail.' For more about the Kensington Wine Market, go here. With files from CTV's Tyler Barrow, Steven Dyer and Kevin Green


CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Carny's G7 invite to Modi aims to ease tensions amid tariffs: Politics professor
Watch TMU associate professor Sanjay Ruparelia discusses why Prime Minister Mark Carney invited India to the G7 summit amid ongoing criminal investigation.


CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Young CAQ members attack unions at their convention in Lévis
At their convention in Lévis on Saturday, young Coalition Avenir Québec members said unions engage in 'undemocratic' practices, echoing arguments put forward by the Legault government. They deplored assemblies with 'prohibitive conditions,' 'radical' positions, and a 'lack of transparency' in how dues are used. Education Minister Bernard Drainville has made similar comments and continues to attack the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), which he claims has become a 'political movement.' The FAE is challenging Bill 21 in court, which prohibits certain government employees, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols, upsetting the Legault government. In a brief speech on Saturday, Drainville expressed his delight that the CAQ's new generation, which he describes as a 'spark plug,' is tackling trade unionism and giving a 'good kick to the hornet's nest.' 'Is it normal for a union like the FAE to call an unlimited general strike without a strike fund, but have the money to challenge Bill 21?' he asked. 'Something is not right. Why are we letting them do this? ... A union is not a political party,' said the outgoing president of the youth wing, Aurélie Diep, in a similar vein. The theme of Saturday's convention borrows an expression often used by Premier François Legault: 'It's going to shake things up.' At the end of the discussion, the young CAQ members adopted three proposals: Restrict the use of membership fees ... so that they are not used for partisan purposes Make it mandatory to publish detailed information on the expenses of union and student associations. Submit resolutions ... authorizing the calling of a strike, the adoption of a position or an expense that does not fall within their mission to a majority vote of all their members. Both the vice-president of the Quebec Student Union, Audrey Fortin, and the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert, reacted on Saturday by accusing the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) of hypocrisy. 'It's fascinating to be lectured on democracy by a party that, at 4:30 this morning, passed a law under gag order,' Hubert said in a phone interview. 'The CAQ was elected with 41 per cent of the vote in 2022 when 66 per cent of the population voted,' she recalled. For her part, Fortin noted that barely 100 young CAQ members were present in the room to vote on the proposals that were submitted. Developing defence and mining In addition to addressing trade union issues, the young CAQ members discussed the economy, bureaucratic streamlining and internships abroad. In particular, they propose 'developing the defence industry in Quebec and focusing on this high value-added sector to diversify the Quebec economy.' They also want to 'reduce red tape in the mining sector by 50 per cent to make it easier than ever to exploit our critical and strategic minerals.' Meanwhile, Legault is scheduled to deliver a speech on Saturday afternoon following the election of a new executive. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French June 7, 2025. Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press