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Global News
14 hours ago
- Business
- Global News
Ford government fails to hit housing target, even after adding LTC beds, student dorms
Despite adding long-term care beds, retirement homes and student dormitories to its housing statistics, the Ford government fell tens of thousands of units short of its goal last year. New data released by the province this month confirms that even with its modified definitions of new housing, Ontario achieved less than 80 per cent of its self-imposed 125,000-unit target for 2024. The figure was introduced by the Ford government after it won the 2022 election, partly with a promise to build 1.5 million new homes over 10 years to 2031. As part of the push, the government assigned housing targets to major municipalities, offering financial incentives to towns and cities that hit their targets. The new data shows just 15 achieved their targets in 2024, while another eight managed 80 per cent or above, which the province also rewards municipalities for. Story continues below advertisement Another 27 — including major cities like Ottawa, Mississauga and Brampton — all failed to meet their targets. 'These are bad news numbers and they show what an utter failure the Ford government's housing policy has been,' Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said. 'I certainly understand why they want to delay releasing the bad news, and I also understand why they're trying to fudge the numbers by including forms of housing that were never part of the intent of the original 1.5 million target.' A spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the government was offering funds to help cities build new housing. 'With over $3 billion in housing and community-enabling infrastructure investments and $1.2 billion committed through the Building Faster Fund, we remained focused on delivering the homes Ontario families need,' they wrote in a statement. Lower housing starts and increasing targets Ontario's cratering housing starts come as its targets ramp up. Story continues below advertisement As it looked to fulfil its promise of 1.5 million homes in a decade, Ontario introduced the Building Faster Fund, a pot of money designed to reward cities which meet their housing goals. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The fund came with individual targets for municipalities, as well as for the province overall. The annual goal for the province itself was staggered, beginning at 110,000 for 2023 and climbing every year. The goal for 2024 was 125,000, it is 150,000 this year and will increase to 175,000 per year for 2026 onwards. In 2023, once it included long-term care beds and other dwellings in its statistics, Ontario exceeded its 110,000 by just under 600 new units. The province managed just under 95,000 of its 125,000 target in 2024 — or 73,462 if long-term care beds, student housing and other extra categories were excluded. A little over 20 per cent of housing starts in Ontario last year were actually long-term care, student dorms or other alternative categories not recognized by federal counts. The added housing starts in 2024 were: 14,381 additional residential units, like basements or laneway houses 2,807 post-secondary student beds 2,278 long-term care beds 1,825 suites in retirement homes The latest data was the first time Ontario has included retirement homes and student residences in its statistics. Long-term care beds were first added in 2023. Story continues below advertisement The government did not address a question asking if it planned to add even more categories to its definition of a new home. Meanwhile, the number of municipalities hitting their goals also dropped significantly. In 2023, there were 20 municipalities which exceeded their target and 12 which managed more than 80 per cent. Those fell to 15 exceeded and eight above 80 per cent through the latest funding. Ontario Liberal MPP Adil Shamji said the failure of the majority of municipalities to hit their targets is an indictment of provincial — not local — policy. 'It's like in a school classroom — if one student fails, maybe it's the student's fault,' he said. 'When the whole class is failing, you've got to wonder what the teacher's not doing right.' The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing pointed to its latest legislation as a cause for optimism that housing starts may improve. 'Through our legislation, the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, we are getting more shovels in the ground by streamlining development processes, lowering costs, and reducing delays,' the spokesperson said in a statement. Much-delayed data While Ontario's total housing starts have been available from federal sources since early this year, Ontario has spent months tabulating the figures and only released them in early August. Story continues below advertisement The government said it took time to update the data, which was further delayed by the snap election call in February. Shamji, however, said he assumed the government was deliberately dragging its feet. 'No doubt this government is ashamed to have to publicly release this information because these are not results to be proud of,' he said. 'Imagine you're a government that gets to set your own targets, your own definitions, even for what counts as housing, and… and even then you have nothing to show except such dismal results.' Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows that over the first six months of 2025, Ontario was on course to do even worse. Housing starts until June for areas with a population of more than 10,000 people were at around 27,400 — a drop of 25 per cent compared to the same period last year. Beyond a statement saying Ontario saw 9,125 new rental housing starts between January and June this year, the Ford government has not yet released any data for 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
16 hours ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ontario records low housing starts, even using new ways of counting them
TORONTO – Ontario's final tally for housing starts in 2024 is well off what's needed to achieve Premier Doug Ford's goal of getting 1.5 million homes built, even with various new categories the government is adding such as university dorms. The government recently updated its housing tracker for the first time in eight months, and it provides yet another glimpse into home building struggles. The total housing starts for 2024 by the government's calculations was 94,753. That includes 73,462 traditional housing starts, 14,381 additional residential units, 2,278 long-term care beds, 2,807 post-secondary student housing beds, and 1,825 retirement home suites. But in order to meet the goal of 1.5 million homes built over 10 years by 2031, Ontario should have added 125,000 homes last year, with at least 150,000 this year and 175,000 the next. The province met its 110,000 target for 2023 after counting long-term care beds. A spokesperson for Housing Minister Rob Flack said the government is seeing progress made through various funds it has established to help spur home construction. 'Our government is accelerating housing development, investing in infrastructure, and giving municipalities the tools they need to build more homes,' Alexandra Sanita wrote in a statement. She also noted there were 9,125 rental housing starts. But this year is so far not shaping up well either, as highlighted by the province's financial accountability officer, who flagged earlier this year that the starts for the first quarter of 2025 were at the lowest levels since 2009. It's a reality that builders are seeing on the ground, said Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association. Home sales, a leading indicator of housing starts, are low and construction industry layoffs that have already started could see up to 40 per cent of the workforce axed, he said. 'The conditions that are in the marketplace right now really reflect the downturn that the industry saw in the early 1990s, so it's the worst that it's been in probably 35 years,' Wilkes said. The challenges are numerous and compounding, including the high cost to build and the low consumer confidence, he said. To help, the federal government could temporarily expand the GST/HST New Housing Rebate, and all levels of government can pull various levers to reduce development charges, Wilkes said. The fees builders pay are used by municipalities to fund housing-enabling infrastructure such as water and sewer lines, but builders say the costs add too much to the price of a new home for the buyer, and cutting them will spur demand and construction. The provincial government over the last few years has established various funds worth several billion dollars to help spur home construction, including money for municipalities to put toward housing-enabling infrastructure. Ontario has tied one of them, the Building Faster Fund, to targets for housing starts the government has assigned 50 municipalities, with cities getting cash if they meet at least 80 per cent of their target. The newly updated housing tracker data shows that last year, just 23 of them hit that threshold, down sharply from 32 the previous year. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said one of the best ways the provincial government could stem the housing crisis would be to enable more gentle density in existing neighbourhoods, where infrastructure already exists. Ford has adamantly refused to automatically allow fourplexes to be built across the province, preferring to leave those zoning decisions up to individual municipalities. Ontario could also standardize rules for modular housing and fund more affordable, non-profit, co-op and social housing, Schreiner said. 'The Ford government is presiding over the worst housing crisis in Ontario history, and have the worst housing numbers in Canada, and they're doing everything they can to not be transparent and honest with the people of Ontario about the extent of the crisis,' he said. 'But the reality is, is we're feeling it in our day-to-day lives, because we have a whole generation of young people wondering if they'll ever be able to own a home.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2025.
CTV News
06-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Toronto receives $67M from province for meeting housing targets
Video Premier Doug Ford presented Mayor Olivia Chow with a $67M cheque as part of Ontario's Building Faster Fund, rewarding Toronto for surpassing 80 per cent of its housing goal.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Toronto gets $67.2M housing cheque as Ontario housing numbers falter
The Ontario government has awarded Toronto $67.2 million in funding after the city came close to hitting its housing starts target last year — but provincial officials say they'll be handing out fewer such cheques in 2025 as not as many cities are hitting their goals. "You have certain mayors in certain towns and cities that absolutely refuse to build. They aren't building a doghouse," Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference at Toronto City Hall Friday, flanked by Mayor Olivia Chow. "They aren't building a garage, and we all know it. "And then you have great cities, and great mayors like Mayor Chow here that's saying, 'We're going to build, we're going to build as quickly as possible because we need the housing.'" This is the second round of funding from the province's Building Faster Fund, which provides funding to municipalities that hit at least 80 per cent of their provincially designated housing targets. Announced in 2023, it promised to provide $1.2 billion over a three-year period to municipalities that achieve annual targets for new home construction starts. Toronto broke ground on 20,999 new homes last year, the province said in a news release, which works out to be 88 per cent of its 2024 housing target. Though Toronto appears to be on the right track, it's now increasingly unlikely that Ford's government will achieve its stated target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031. The latest Ontario budget forecasts 71,800 housing starts in 2025, followed by 74,800 next year and 82,500 in 2027. WATCH | Fewer homes expected to be built in Ontario this year: There have been 260,000 actual housing starts in the three years since the target was set. So if you add in the projections for 2025 and 2026, the province would only be about one-quarter of the way toward its goal at the end of next year, which is the halfway point of the target timeline. The province distributed only $280 million from the fund in its first year after more than half of Ontario's municipalities failed to hit the housing start targets in 2023. The government hasn't updated its housing start tracker since October 2024. As of that point, nine months through the year, only 11 of 50 municipalities had reached their annual benchmark. When asked by CBC News at Friday's news conference why the provincial government is no longer showing the numbers for what each municipality is building, Housing Minister Rob Flack said that he would "have to get back to you." "Housing starts are down. We know that," Flack said. "There's a crisis, a major crisis in this country. We're going to hand out some nice Building Faster Fund cheques — not as many and not for as much this year as we did last year." Flack went on to say that's why the government introduced Bill 17, which is intended to accelerate permit issuance and streamline zoning rules. It also defers the collection of development charges until occupancy, which the province says will provide greater cash flow flexibility. "We know the numbers are down, but if we don't make the changes like we did in Bill 17, we're never going to hit our targets," Flack said. Speaking at the news conference, Chow said that the provincial funding will help build homes in the city faster. "At the end of the day we have a housing crisis, we need to build, whether through deferring development charges, exempting development charges, building the missing middle," she said. "We need to build, build, build a lot of housing, especially affordable housing."
CBC
06-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Toronto gets $67.2M housing cheque as Ontario housing numbers falter
The Ontario government has awarded Toronto $67.2 million in funding after the city came close to hitting its housing starts target last year — but provincial officials say they'll be handing out fewer such cheques in 2025 as not as many cities are hitting their goals. "You have certain mayors in certain towns and cities that absolutely refuse to build. They aren't building a doghouse," Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference at Toronto City Hall Friday, flanked by Mayor Olivia Chow. "They aren't building a garage, and we all know it. "And then you have great cities, and great mayors like Mayor Chow here that's saying, 'We're going to build, we're going to build as quickly as possible because we need the housing.'" This is the second round of funding from the province's Building Faster Fund, which provides funding to municipalities that hit at least 80 per cent of their provincially designated housing targets. Announced in 2023, it promised to provide $1.2 billion over a three-year period to municipalities that achieve annual targets for new home construction starts. Toronto broke ground on 20,999 new homes last year, the province said in a news release, which works out to be 88 per cent of its 2024 housing target. Municipalities missing housing targets Though Toronto appears to be on the right track, it's now increasingly unlikely that Ford's government will achieve its stated target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031. The latest Ontario budget forecasts 71,800 housing starts in 2025, followed by 74,800 next year and 82,500 in 2027. WATCH | Fewer homes expected to be built in Ontario this year: Ontario budget forecasts fewer housing starts in 2025 22 days ago Duration 3:57 There have been 260,000 actual housing starts in the three years since the target was set. So if you add in the projections for 2025 and 2026, the province would only be about one-quarter of the way toward its goal at the end of next year, which is the halfway point of the target timeline. The province distributed only $280 million from the fund in its first year after more than half of Ontario's municipalities failed to hit the housing start targets in 2023. The government hasn't updated its housing start tracker since October 2024. As of that point, nine months through the year, only 11 of 50 municipalities had reached their annual benchmark. Country facing housing 'crisis,' housing minister says When asked by CBC News at Friday's news conference why the provincial government is no longer showing the numbers for what each municipality is building, Housing Minister Rob Flack said that he would "have to get back to you." "Housing starts are down. We know that," Flack said. "There's a crisis, a major crisis in this country. We're going to hand out some nice Building Faster Fund cheques — not as many and not for as much this year as we did last year." Flack went on to say that's why the government introduced Bill 17, which is intended to accelerate permit issuance and streamline zoning rules. It also defers the collection of development charges until occupancy, which the province says will provide greater cash flow flexibility. "We know the numbers are down, but if we don't make the changes like we did in Bill 17, we're never going to hit our targets," Flack said. Speaking at the news conference, Chow said that the provincial funding will help build homes in the city faster. "At the end of the day we have a housing crisis, we need to build, whether through deferring development charges, exempting development charges, building the missing middle," she said. "We need to build, build, build a lot of housing, especially affordable housing."
