How 2 foes came together to pitch Ontario a new approach to the housing crisis
Global News
A group representing developers and another lobbying for municipalities got together to find common ground on housing. Then they sent their ideas to the Ford government.
At the beginning of the year, a lobby group representing Ontario’s developers released a comprehensive report laying out how the fees homebuilders have to pay have increased, making it harder to kickstart new homes that people can afford.
The Ontario Home Builders Association released its development charges study in January, advocating for a more uniform approach across the province to provide stability.
The 65-page document caught the attention of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, a group which has often fought against suggestions by developers that the fees they pay to cities should be reduced.
The group viewed the latest report — on modernizing rather than scrapping development charges — as a chance to compromise.
“This was much more targeted and focused on improving the current regime and really recognizing the importance of the development charge,” Lindsay Jones, the AMO director of policy and government relations, told Global News.
The municipal group reached out to set a meeting with the homebuilders and, over the course of a few months, worked on a compromise.
After years of fighting over how the Ford government should solve Ontario’s worsening housing crisis, the two opposing groups sat down to try and work out some kind of common ground.
By the end of March, days after new Housing Minister Rob Flack was appointed to the portfolio, the groups had signed a joint letter. It contained a series of recommendations for how the government could tweak the fees developers pay.
The development charges can vary greatly from city to city, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report found.
The three leaders will be in Washington, D.C., for the FIFA World Cup draw, marking the first time they will be in the same room together.
Flu season has arrived early, with CHEO reporting eight times more cases than last year as hospitals warn of rising infections among children and seniors.
Nova Scotia’s largest utility is responding to a stinging letter from Premier Tim Houston by insisting it hasn't broken any laws.
A British Columbia Liberal MP said Prime Minister Mark Carney "will have to answer" questions on why he reversed a budget commitment on tax credits in Alberta energy deal.
AFN Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said Budget 2025 failed First Nations because it did not include more infrastructure funding and educational resources for their communities.
Conservation officers in B.C. say they've captured four more grizzly bears that are being tested to determine if they were involved in an attack on a school group last month.
Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was "incredible," the largest he'd ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.
Canadians could face grocery bills up to $1,000 higher in 2026 as food prices rise 4-6 per cent, with restaurants and meat seeing the biggest jumps.
Despite a growing homelessness problem in the South Okanagan city, council voted 4-2 against the project and the millions of provincial dollars that would come along with it.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a House of Commons committee the updated strategy will come next year, after saying in the fall it would come this year.
Reports emerged this week of U.S. government procurement plans to order 20 Senator vehicles for its ICE officers, a move worth roughly $10 million.
The 16-year-old was arrested in April after police said a credible threat was made against students at Citadel High School.