Immigration is driving up demand in a province woefully short of housing and the tradespeople to build more
These targets are all attacked in the latest version of Ontario’s home building plan, released Tuesday by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark. Clark is pulling a lot of levers in the plan. Some of them are for show, others will help a little bit. None of them go after the main cause.The NP Comment newsletter from columnist Colby Cosh and NP Comment editors tackles the important topics with boldness, verve and wit. Get NP Platformed delivered to your inbox weekdays by 4 p.m. ET.
Ontario, which attracts half of all the immigrants Canada welcomes in a year, cannot keep up with the housing demand.Ontario is doing what it can to expand worker supply by boosting trades training, but it would require a 50 per cent increase in industry capacity to reach the provincial target of 1.5 million homes in 10 years. That’s wildly optimistic. The labour shortage will limit the effectiveness of the plan Clark announced this week.
The headline item is allowing three units on existing single family lots without requiring special approvals. The three units would not be triplexes, but would consist of the original house, a converted apartment within it and a coach house. Toronto already allows that, but it’s not a policy that’s going to produce much housing volume.Article content
While the province is prepared to lower fees municipalities charge, it hasn’t been so generous with its own. Clark’s plan contains no offer to reduce provincial sales tax on new homes or cut the provincial land transfer tax, which is expected to rake in nearly $5.7 billion this year.Article content