I would like to thank both the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Associate Minister of Housing for sharing their time with me today. It’s my pleasure to rise for the second reading of our government’s proposed More Homes Built Faster Act. I will echo the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in saying that Ontario is the best place to call home, yet finding the right home is still challenging. That is why we are dedicated to getting 1.5 million homes built over the next 10 years. I’m honoured to be able to speak to the details of how we plan to reach that goal.

Our new housing supply action plan is a strong foundation, which we’re building on in partnership with eight other ministries, along with municipalities and industry experts. Our goal is to introduce almost 50 new changes to legislation and regulations that will speed up housing creation in Ontario. We know that if we reduce delays and get the cost of building homes down, we can lower the price of a home for the average buyer, because delays in building housing drive up costs.

Delays are contributing to the housing supply shortage even as we try diligently to make up the time we lost when the pandemic first hit. Throughout the province, we need to significantly increase the speed of new home building in order to meet demand and lower costs for Ontarians. Study after study has found that development approvals and appropriate zoning are often delayed or hindered because of opposition from some members of local municipalities. Some projects are even abandoned altogether. Even if the project finally gets the go-ahead, a lot of damage has already been done. Our new plan addresses the barriers that cause housing delays. These barriers include land access in urban areas due to complex land use policies, on top of lengthy planning approvals for new housing. Coupled with high development charges, these issues are the driving causes of rising costs in creating delays in building supply.

Just last month, the Building Industry and Land Development Association, or BILD, found municipal approval times in the greater Toronto area are among the worst of major municipalities in the country. Think about this: Our current requirements for approvals can add, on average, from 27% to 51% more time on a new build, based on a 2020 study. When it comes to costs, BILD also found development charge rates for a two-bedroom apartment unit exceeded $70,000 in five of our province’s most populous municipalities. This drives up costs for builders, for renters and for homeowners alike, and it’s why we are proposing to look at ways we can update and streamline how and when these types of charges are required in order to help build more housing faster.

There are three main charges levied on new residential developments by municipalities. They are development charges, which fund infrastructure like water and roads; parkland dedication fees, which can be either money or land, and are used to create parks; and community benefit charges, which help build libraries and community centres. Our proposed changes, if passed, would revise the way these charges are implemented to help spur much-needed development. Affordable housing units as well as inclusionary zoning units would not be required to pay development charges, parkland dedication fees and community benefit charges. Where a charge is not levied on a per-unit basis, the maximum charge would be lowered to reflect both the affordable and inclusionary zoning units. Likewise, select attainable housing projects would see some relief from these three charges. Non-profit housing developments would also be relieved from paying development charges and parkland dedication fees. With our proposed changes, development charges for rental construction would be discounted for home builders, with deeper discounts for family-sized units.

We’re also working to reduce the administrative burden on municipalities by extending the deadline for reviewing development charge bylaws from every five years to every 10 years. If and when new development charge bylaws are passed, the charges would be phased in over five years, making increases more manageable for home builders.

Speaker, I also mentioned parkland dedication requirements. In our plan, we’re proposing to reduce maximum parkland dedication requirements for higher density developments by 50% and putting a tiered maximum parkland rate of 15% of the land or its value for sites greater than five hectares. For sites that are five hectares or less, the maximum parkland rate would be 10%. This would help reduce costs to build new condos and apartment buildings.

Changes like this would make it easier for builders to predict the cost of fees, which would, of course, encourage the start of construction. We would make changes to freeze parkland rates earlier in the development process, at the time of the site plan or zoning application, instead of at the time the building permit is issued, which is later in the development process. Parkland dedication requirements would not be imposed on existing units and parcels of land.

Together, these changes to charges would help incentivize the development of a mix of rentals, mid-rise buildings, single and semi-detached homes, duplexes and triplexes for everyone.

We are also proposing to amend the Planning Act by adjusting how community benefits charges are applied. I mentioned that we would ensure that affordable housing units would not be subject to community benefits charges. In addition, when someone builds infill development or units on a parcel of land with existing development on it, the community benefits charge would be based on just the new units rather than the entire parcel of land.

Speaker, municipal fees and charges ought to be collected to build infrastructure, not earn interest. We’re proposing to require municipalities to use or allocate at least 60% of their development charge reserves for services like water, waste water and roads each year. Similarly, the same requirement would be put in place for parkland reserves, because we need municipalities to build the infrastructure and parks that our growing communities need now.

As we propose to help reduce costs for new developments, we need to look at the other challenges that builders often face. When people are unable to resolve their differences on community planning issues or have disputes with their municipal council that can’t be settled, the Ontario Land Tribunal provides a forum to resolve these disputes. So we’re moving to ensure the OLT can recruit more adjudicators and staff to resolve disputes faster. We want to speed up decision-making at the OLT and help increase housing supply by proposing changes that would prioritize the cases that create the most housing, establish service standards and clarify the Ontario Land Tribunal’s powers to dismiss appeals due to unreasonable delay or failure to comply with a tribunal order.

We would also place a limit on appeals from individuals and community groups, for instance, that would further hinder the progress of official plan amendments and zoning bylaw amendments. This would help reduce the tribunal’s backlog and speed up approvals.

This requires well-thought-out policies. As the minister talked about, one of our main priorities is looking at how we are planning for growth. A recent study by Re/Max Canada found that our housing inventory is depleted in part thanks to our rapidly growing population. Our housing stock has already fallen behind, and it’s not on track to keep pace with population growth. That means we need to take action now to keep up. We have to ensure that our province has the necessary amount of housing required to meet the needs of Ontarians and all newcomers. One of our top priorities is making sure that we have these supports in place.

That’s why we’re taking another look at the growth plan for the greater Golden Horseshoe and its policies, to make sure that unnecessary red tape around building homes is eliminated. We have to look again and be nimble enough in our approach to make sure that our plan for growth isn’t inadvertently hindering our ability to build more homes.

We’re undertaking a housing-focused review of A Place to Grow and the provincial policy statement, which will result in a new outcome-based, province-wide policy instrument for municipalities in Ontario.

To elaborate on what the minister touched on earlier, these changes would include a review of six main themes.

The first would be residential land supply. We would update policies relating to boundary expansions, rural housing and converting employment areas to areas suitable for housing.

The second would be attainable housing supply. We would develop a strong mix of housing in areas where urban growth is occurring.

The third theme of this review would be growth management. By working to forecast population and employment, and enlarge fast-growing municipalities, we can ensure we have enough housing stock.

The fourth theme of our review of this plan includes protecting environmental and natural resources, looking at agricultural policies and maintaining our province’s natural heritage.

For the fifth theme, we would look at the current supply and capacity of community infrastructure, including how to integrate urban schools into our communities.

Finally, our last theme would be a streamlined planning framework, one that ensures our reviews of these policies are focused on positive impact and are flexible enough to keep up with quickly changing demands, as I described. In all, increasing the supply of attainable housing would put housing in reach for more people across Ontario.

We know that change is challenging, but we must take action, no matter how challenging it is. Our plan would help to create more consistency, which should reduce the disputes that often arise in municipal council meetings over land use planning issues. The proposals would, if passed, ensure that cities, towns and rural communities grow with a mix of ownership and rental housing types that meet the needs of all Ontarians.

It is because of this demand for a variety of housing that we are proposing to remove site plan control requirements for projects with fewer than 10 units. Let me elaborate. Site plan control is a planning tool that a municipality usually uses to evaluate things like walkways, parking areas, landscaping or exterior design on land where development is proposed. Site plan control works in tandem with provincial policy statements, official plans, zoning bylaws, community planning permit systems and building permits. Removing site plan controls for projects with less than 10 units would reduce the number of approvals in the pipeline, speeding things up for these housing proposals, and would ensure that essential building permits, as well as the building code and fire code requirements, will continue to protect public safety.

For larger projects, we are proposing to speed up approvals by streamlining site plan reviews to focus on health and safety issues, such as safe access to and from the site, rather than focus on the unnecessary regulation of architectural or aesthetic landscaping design details.

Our new housing supply action plan has, as I’ve described, thoughtful solutions and innovative ways that will help us to quickly approve new builds, and it will allow us to quickly make changes to the charges and delays incurred by builders and consumers to keep up and get ahead.

Speaker, as you can see, we’re leading innovations that will create more housing in Ontario and will make it easier for our partners in municipalities to keep up with demand. These proposed approaches to breaking down barriers, streamlining processes and cutting costs would, if passed, further our goal of making housing more attainable for all Ontarians. With our proposed changes, we would help renters cross over and become homeowners, and we would increase the number of homes available to all people, because everyone in Ontario should be able to find a home that is right for them.

I want to thank the hard-working member from Mississauga Centre for that very important question.

Speaker, we know that the status quo is simply not working. If we continue on this path without making bold and transformative changes, the next generation will not have the same opportunities for success as previous generations had. The proposed legislation will take several steps to make sure Ontarians get the additional housing supply we so critically need.

By permitting more gentle intensification, an issue that the opposition have many times said transcends party lines, our proposed changes will lay the foundation for more missing-middle housing, giving Ontarians more choice and flexibility. Additionally, we’re reducing building costs to incentivize our private sector and non-profit partners to get more housing built faster.

Together, with all hands on deck, we can ensure that home ownership is attainable for all Ontarians across our great province.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing.

Speaker, as you know, Ontario’s housing supply is in crisis. Skyrocketing demand has far outpaced the construction of new supply, making the Canadian dream of home ownership far out of reach for many Ontarians. And with Ontario’s population projected to grow by millions in the coming years, the demand will only increase.

Many of my constituents in Mississauga Centre—from hard-working young professionals to young families, students, new Ontarians, and seniors looking to downsize—are finding themselves priced out of the market and unable to find housing options that meet their needs.

Can the minister elaborate on what steps our government’s newly proposed housing supply action plan will take to ensure that our province is able to achieve our goal of building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years?

In fact, I do. In fact, the rules of the Ontario Land Tribunal will apply to everybody in front of the land tribunal. The movement to create 1.5 million homes is going to be an effort pushing on both sides to make sure that things are getting done, to make sure that they’re actually getting built. And so if we find ourselves in a situation where developers are sitting on housing stock and not building it, then you will see a response from the government, Madam Speaker. We have to make sure these homes are built.

The Premier has been crystal clear. This should be no surprise to everybody. Pre-election, during the election and post-election, this has been a top priority, and the people of Ontario sent us here to solve this problem.

Report continues in volume B.