Board Responds to Provincial Housing Legislation

We applaud the Government for addressing the region’s housing affordability crisis by materially improving conditions for growing the supply of housing. Our region’s affordability crisis directly impacts business’ ability to attract and retain talent, core to our competitiveness.  

This proposed legislation aligns with our advocacy. This includes reducing red tape, allowing more density around transit stations and increasing the supply of needed missing middle housing. In particular, we are pleased to see this legislation: 

• Implement a “use it or lose it” policy to spur the timely build-out of approved housing sites.
• Respond to the needs of municipalities by reversing planned changes to development charges.
• Reduce regulatory burdens on universities seeking to build urgently needed new student housing.
• Eliminate parking minimums and other tools to encourage denser construction in major transit station areas.
• Support standardization of housing designs for missing middle housing, including updates to the Building Code to reduce red tape.  

These are positive steps that will allow more housing to be built quickly and at lower cost.  

Housing is, and must remain, a top priority. Nevertheless we also need to ensure sufficient availability of land for new employment opportunities. We continue to call on the Government to reverse proposed changes that would weaken protections for critical employment lands in our region. 

We will continue to engage with the Government to ensure that employment lands are not only preserved, but also effectively utilized to bolster economic activity.