Canadian Mortgage and Housing Commission (CMHC) data indicates Ontario housing starts have fallen by 25 percent compared with last year while the rest of Canada saw a 17 percent increase in the same period. British Columbia and Alberta had more success in increasing the provision of housing and affordable housing in the last two years than Ontario. From 2023 to 2024, Ontario averaged 86,650 housing starts each year, short of the 105,000 to 150,000 starts a year required to meet the Ford government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031 (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Commission, 2025).
The Provincial government has passed legislation such as Bill 23, 108, 109 and 17 to relax development rules and benefit of private developers but has failed in the following key performance indicators:
1. Increase density: The provincial government has refused the call to upgrade zoning rights, such as the proposal Allowing fourplexes ‘as of right’ throughout provincial municipalities, which was a condition both new federal housing infrastructure fund in April 2024 and the provinces own Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force (Globe & Mail, 2024).
2. Affordable Housing: In over 100 Municipal Zoning Orders (MZOs) issued by the province of Ontario to supersede municipal requirements for community amenities and affordable housing in planned proposed developments, minimal affordable housing units have been provided in developments approved to proceed and/or limited to maximum 5 percent without tracking goals for the number of units or affordable housing (Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, 2024).
3. The auditor general stated the province used the tool 114 times from 2019 to 2023 under Premier Doug Ford’s government, a 17-fold increase from the previous 20 years. In 2021, Ontario had 100,000 housing starts (Statista Research Department, Oct 22, 2024), which has been reduced to 20,600 units in 2024 Q3 or 82,000 units yearly (Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, 2024).
4. While the provincial government has incentivized private development without gaining the desired effect of more housing, they must pivot to use part of the massive funds committed to market rate development and infrastructure and move to deliver increased affordable rental housing that costs less than 30 percent of a person’s pre-taxed income per CMHC definition, and to affordable housing for women which should include low—to modest-income women and their families in Ontario.
REFERENCES
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Commission, 2025 https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/media-newsroom/news-releases/2025/housing-starts-june-2025
Financial Accountability Office of Ontario. (2024). Ontario’s Economic and Budget Outlook – March 2024. FAO Ontario. http://fao-on.org/en/communication/MR-OEM-2024-Q3/
Globe and Mail. (2024, March 21). Premier Ford says imposing fourplexes across Ontario is a ‘massive mistake.’ The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-premier-ford-says-its-a-massive-mistake-to-impose-fourpexes-across/
Office of the Auditor General of Ontario. (2024). Land use planning and minister’s zoning orders. https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en24/pa_MZOs_en24.pdf
Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). (2024). When it comes to housing starts, the outlook is grim. RESCON. https://rescon.com/media/in-the-news/when-it-comes-to-housing-starts-the-outlook-is-grim
Statista. (n.d.). The total number of housing starts in Ontario from 1995 to 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/198063/total-number-of-housing-starts-in-ontario-since-1995/#:~:text=Housing%20construction%20starts%20in%20Ontario%
