Opinion: Toronto’s housing stock could be maintained and expanded by streamlining the city’s zoning and permit approvals process, writes Dave Wilkes.
In a city like Toronto, with its generational housing crisis, every home counts. That’s why we need to not only address systemic barriers to adding housing supply, but also make it easier to maintain existing housing stock and add secondary housing through renovations, infill and custom home-building.
The 2021 Census identified that 305,600 owned homes in Toronto need minor repairs, and a further 74,600 homes need major repairs — including corrections to defective plumbing or electrical wiring, or structural repairs to walls, floors or ceilings.
It can take up to four weeks for the intake of an application, with no clear timelines or transparency regarding the status of a submission. The period of time from when an application is submitted to when a hearing with the Committee of Adjustment is booked has become lengthier over the years. In the past, it took 30 to 60 days to get a hearing. Now, it can take six to eight months in some parts of the city.
These inefficiencies have a real impact. Not only do they make it challenging to maintain Toronto’s existing housing, and add new homes on a smaller scale, but they also help create an underground economy where unscrupulous businesses seek to circumvent the system. Ultimately, this results in unsafe building outcomes that put homeowners and the general public at risk.