On Monday, November 14, 2022, Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy released
the 2022 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review – Ontario’s Plan to Build: A Progress Update. It also includes the first-ever progress report on our government’s Plan to Build Ontario.
Highlights of the first-ever Building Ontario Progress Report, include:
The provincial government also released a slide deck with highlights, which can be viewed here.
The Region of Durham has released its Growth Management Study, Phase 2: Draft Settlement Area Boundary Expansions and Area Municipal Growth Allocations.
After reviewing the study, if you have any concerns or comments, please contact Stacey.
The Ontario Government has introduced legislation that, if passed, would support Ontario’s newest Housing Supply Action Plan, More Homes Built Faster. This plan is part of a long-term strategy to increase housing supply and provide attainable housing options for hardworking Ontarians and their families. Initiatives in the plan include:
Addressing the Missing Middle
Building on a suite of as-of-right residential tools Ontario has provided municipalities with since 2019, Ontario is proposing changes to the Planning Act to create a new provincewide standard threshold for what’s allowed to be built by strengthening the additional residential unit framework. If passed, up to three residential units would be permitted “as of right” on most land zoned for one home in residential areas without needing a municipal by-law amendment. Depending on the property in question, these three units could all be within the existing residential structure or could take the form of a residence with an in-law or basement suite and a laneway or garden home. These new units must be compliant with the building code and municipal bylaws. These units would also be exempt from development charges and parkland dedication fees.
Building More Homes Near Transit
Ontario is taking action to ensure that complete, sustainable communities are built near and centred around our historic investments in provincewide transit expansion. Proposed changes to the Planning Act would help move towards “as-of-right” zoning to meet planned minimum density targets near major transit stations, reducing approval timelines and getting shovels in the ground faster. Once the key development policies for major transit stations are approved, municipalities would be required to update their zoning by-laws within one year to meet minimum density targets.
Supporting the Growth and Standardization of Affordable and Rental Housing
Ontario is creating the conditions for building more affordable and purpose-built rental housing across the province. Ontario is proposing regulatory changes to provide certainty regarding inclusionary zoning rules, with a maximum 25-year affordability period, a five per cent cap on the number of inclusionary zoning units, and a standardized approach to determining the price or rent of an affordable unit under an inclusionary zoning program.
Ontario is also taking action to help streamline the construction and revitalization of our aging rental housing stock that in some cases is many decades old, grossly energy inefficient, and is starting to fail. As it stands, under the Municipal Act and City of Toronto Act, municipalities may enact bylaws to prohibit and regulate the demolition or conversion of multi-unit residential rental properties of six units or more. These by-laws vary among municipalities and can include requirements that may limit access to housing or pose as barriers to creating housing supply. Ontario will be launching consultations on potential regulations to enable greater standardization of these municipal by-laws, while ensuring that renter protections and landlord accountabilities remain in place.
Freezing, Reducing and Exempting fees for Building Attainable, Affordable, and Non-Profit Housing
Government charges and fees significantly impact the cost of housing—adding up to nearly $200,000 to the overall cost of building a home. That is why Ontario is proposing changes to the Planning Act, the Development Charges Act and the Conservation Authorities Act to freeze, reduce, and exempt fees to spur the supply of new home construction and help address Ontario’s housing supply crisis. This includes ensuring affordable, and inclusionary zoning units, select attainable housing units, as well as non-profit housing developments, are exempt from municipal development charges, parkland dedication levies, and community benefits charges. Rental construction would also have reduced development charges and conservation authority fees for development permits and proposals would be temporarily frozen. Ontario is also undertaking a review of all other fees levied by provincial ministries, boards, agencies, and commissions to determine what impact they may have on the cost of housing with the intent of further reducing, if not eliminating these fees altogether.
Streamlining Bureaucratic Processes to Get More Homes Built Faster
Proposed changes to the Planning Act would remove site plan control requirements for most projects with fewer than 10 residential units (with limited exceptions). This would reduce the number of required approvals for small housing projects, speeding things up for all housing proposals, while building permits and robust building and fire code requirements would continue to protect public safety. Proposed streamlining changes also include focusing responsibility for land use policies and approvals in certain lower-tier municipalities to eliminate the time and costs associated with planning processes by upper-tier municipalities. This would give the local community more influence over decisions that impact them directly, clarifying responsibilities and improving the efficiency of government services for citizens.
Improving the Ontario Land Tribunal to Support Building More Homes Faster
The Ontario Land Tribunal is a critical part of Ontario’s land use planning system. Proposed legislative changes to the Ontario Land Tribunal Act would help speed up proceedings, resolve cases more efficiently and streamline processes. This includes by allowing for regulations to prioritize cases that meet certain criteria (for example, that create the most housing), as well as to establish service standards (i.e., timelines for completing specific stages of a case). Proposed changes would also clarify the Tribunal’s powers to dismiss appeals due to unreasonable party delay or party failure to comply with a Tribunal order, as well as clarify the Tribunal’s powers to order an unsuccessful party to pay the successful party’s costs. Building on the $14.7 million over three years announced in the Budget, Ontario would also invest $2.5 million in other resources to support faster dispute resolution and to help reduce the overall caseload at the Tribunal.
Creating a New Attainable Housing Program
Ontario is creating a new program to support the dream of homeownership for all Ontarians. The new program will leverage provincial authorities, surplus or underutilized lands, and commercial innovation and partnerships to rapidly build attainable homes in mixed-income communities that are accessible to all and will help families to build portable equity.
Protecting Ontario Homebuyers From Unethical Developers
Ontario is further strengthening consumer protections for new home buyers by doubling maximum fines for unethical builders and vendors of new homes who unfairly cancel projects or terminate purchase agreements. These proposed changes under the New Home Construction Licensing Act, would, if passed, increase existing maximum financial penalties from $25,000 to $50,000 per infraction, with no limit to additional monetary benefit penalties, and be retroactively imposed for contraventions that occurred on or after April 14, 2022. These changes would also enable the Home Construction Regulatory Authority to use funds from these penalties to provide money back to affected consumers, making Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide such funds to consumers. If passed, the amendments would come into force in early 2023.
Taking Action to Crack Down on Land Speculation
In January, during the Ontario-Municipal Housing Summit, Ontario’s mayors expressed concerns that lands planned for residential development are sitting empty because home builders are taking too long to complete their planning applications, delaying the creation of new homes. To further investigate these concerns, Ontario will work with industry partners to consult on the issue of land speculation as a detriment to the housing supply goals of the government, and whether potential regulatory changes under the New Home Construction Licensing Act, are needed to address the issue.
Improving Ontario’s Heritage and Growth Planning
Proposed changes to the Ontario Heritage Act would renew and update Ontario’s heritage policies and strengthen the criteria for heritage designation and update guidelines. This would promote sustainable development that conserves and commemorates key places with heritage significance and provide municipalities with the clarity and flexibility needed to move forward with priority projects, including housing. Ontario will be consulting on how it manages natural heritage, including improving the management of wetlands, while supporting sustainable growth and development. Ontario will be seeking input on integrating A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Provincial Policy Statement into a single, provincewide planning policy document. This review will also include consultation on how to address overlapping planning policies that currently negatively impact precision in mapping and municipal planning.
Reducing Taxes on Affordable Rental Housing
Ontario is calling on the federal government to come to the table and work with us on potential GST/HST incentives, including rebates, exemptions and deferrals, to support new ownership and rental housing development. All levels of government need to work together to get more homes built and address the housing crisis.
Promoting Fairness to Support Affordable and Other Rental Housing
Currently, property tax assessments for affordable rental housing are established using the same basis as regular market rental properties. Ontario will explore potential refinements to the assessment methodology used to assess affordable rental housing so that it better reflects the reduced rents that are received by these housing providers.
In addition, Ontario will consult with municipalities on potential approaches to reduce the current property tax burden on multi-residential apartment buildings in the province.
Helping Homebuyers and Renters: Addressing Vacant Homes
This winter, there will also be a consultation on a policy framework setting out the key elements of local vacant home taxes. Right now, only a handful of municipalities have the authority to charge this tax on unoccupied residential units to incentivize owners to sell or rent them out. A provincial-municipal working group will be established to consult on this framework, and to facilitate sharing information and best practices.
Strengthening the Non-Resident Speculation Tax
At 25 per cent and provincewide, Ontario now has the highest and most comprehensive Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) in the country. This initiative is meant to further discourage foreign speculation in Ontario’s housing market.
TORONTO ― Today, the Ontario government introduced the More Homes Built Faster Act, which takes bold action to advance the province’s plan to address the housing crisis by building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. The proposals in the More Homes Built Faster Act 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, from single family homes to townhomes and mid-rise apartments.
“For too many Ontarians, including young people, newcomers, and seniors, finding the right home is still too challenging. This is not just a big-city crisis: the housing supply shortage affects all Ontarians, including rural, urban and suburban, north and south, young and old.” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “Our Housing Supply Action Plan is creating a strong foundation on which 1.5 million homes can be built over the next 10 years. Our government is following through on our commitment to Ontarians by cutting delays and red tape to get more homes built faster.”
The plan puts in place actions to support the development of “gentle density” – housing like triplexes or garden suites – that bridge the gap between single family homes and high-rise apartments. For example, it would remove exclusionary zoning, which allows for only one single detached home per lot. Instead, it would allow property owners to build three units without lengthy approvals and development charges.
The plan, which contains around 50 actions, addresses the housing crisis by reducing government fees and fixing developmental approval delays that slow down housing construction and increase costs. Actions in the plan include:
The government will also consult with the public, stakeholders and municipalities while engaging with Indigenous communities to review provincial housing and land use planning policies to find ways to remove more barriers to getting homes built.
“Ontario’s housing supply crisis is a problem which has been decades in the making. It will take both short-term strategies and long-term commitment from all levels of government, the private sector and not-for-profits to drive change,” said Michael Parsa, Associate Minister of Housing.
OHBA is pleased to advise you of a significant change that reflects OHBA's advocacy efforts.
As part of a legislative package introduced in March 2022 (Bill 109), a regulation was passed in April 2022 under the Condominium Act that resulted in the removal of the 2% deduction from the Bank of Canada (BOC) rate, set twice yearly, used to calculate interest paid on purchasers’ deposits. This resulted in a net increase to the interest rate of 1.75%, as the new applicable rate was to be the BOC Policy Rate, which is .25% below the BOC Rate.
The increased rate would apply to interest payable to purchasers both on an interim occupancy closing, as well as when a purchase agreement was cancelled by the vendor or by the purchaser when the outside occupancy date had not been met. This change was scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2023, for all projects launched after that date, which would have had the potential to add significant costs to new condominium projects.
OHBA has been working with the provincial government to amend the regulation so that the new formula would apply only to deposit refunds and the previous formula continue to apply to deposits paid under closed agreements.
As indicated in the embedded correspondence, the Minister has amended the Condominium Act regulations and reverted to the previous treatment for completed projects by reintroducing the 2% deduction from BOC Rate for deposits paid under closed agreements.
TORONTO — As part of its plan to tackle Ontario’s housing crisis, the government is prioritizing Ontario families and homebuyers by increasing the Non-Resident Speculation Tax rate from 20 per cent to 25 per cent, effective October 25, 2022.
This increase will strengthen efforts to deter non-resident investors from speculating on the province’s housing market and help make home ownership more attainable for Ontario residents. For many years, there have been concerns that foreign real-estate speculation is an important factor driving up the cost of housing in Ontario.
“Young families, newcomers and those all over the province dream of having their own home, a dream which continues to be out of reach for too many,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “To help Ontario homebuyers, our government is increasing the Non-Resident Speculation Tax rate by another five percentage points to 25 per cent, making it the highest in Canada, to further discourage foreign speculation in Ontario’s housing market.”
This increase builds on the government’s previous actions taken in March 2022 to make Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax the most comprehensive in Canada, including:
This increase to the Non-Resident Speculation Tax rate is part of a suite of concrete actions the Province is taking to address Ontario’s housing crisis. Last week, the government announced that Ontario is also cracking down on bad actors by doubling the fines for unethical and illegal new home cancellations. These steps, built on recommendations from the Housing Affordability Task Force and the first-ever Provincial-Municipal Housing Summit, will deliver both near-term solutions and long-term commitments to provide more attainable housing options for Ontario families.
“Today’s announcement is another step in our government’s plan to make housing more attainable for all Ontarians,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “We are working to end Ontario’s housing supply crisis – both by building 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years, and by ensuring Ontarians are able to access our existing housing supply. These measures are a clear indication of our commitment to do precisely that.”
PICKERING – Based on expert advice, Ontario is proposing new legislation that, if passed, would support the continued delivery of world-class wastewater treatment services for the Region of York. Through the proposed Supporting Growth and Housing in York and Durham Act, 2022, Ontario would facilitate expedited improvements to the existing York-Durham Sewage System network connected to the Duffin Creek treatment facility that is co-owned and operated by York and Durham Regions.
Following recommendations of the York Region Wastewater Advisory Panel, the proposed legislation accommodates regional growth by leveraging an existing wastewater infrastructure service agreement between York and Durham Regions that delivers high-quality, treated water safely and responsibly into Lake Ontario. The expansion of this infrastructure is the most effective option available, leveraging existing wastewater treatment services under the Co-Ownership Agreement between Durham and York Regions who share treatment facility assets to support their collective population growth.
“Expansion of this shared critical wastewater infrastructure for York and Durham Regions is needed to support their significant population housing, and economic growth. Our government is proposing a solution that ensures the most robust wastewater treatment as these communities continue to grow,” said David Piccini, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “The Duffin Creek treatment facility is one of the best performing wastewater facilities in the province that ensures the protection, enjoyment and welfare of Lake Ontario, shoreline communities and nearshore areas.”
The Duffin Creek treatment facility is one of the top performing wastewater treatment plants in Ontario, achieving world-class standards for high quality treatment, phosphorus control and protective measures for the surrounding environment and watershed, with a capacity to process 630 million litres per day. Today, this facility operates at approximately 50 per cent capacity and the proposal would add an additional 12 per cent to the current flow levels, meaning it has the capacity to ensure every litre of water the plant receives gets high quality treatment. Over the past 25 years, governments at all levels have invested more than $850 million in the plant, making it one of the best performing treatment facilities on the Lake Ontario shoreline. Phosphorous limits at the plant are significantly lower than those at other wastewater facilities in Ontario and will continue to be reduced as the facility implements additional upgrades between now and 2030.
In parallel with this initiative, Ontario continues to make multi-million-dollar improvements to wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, investing in the latest technology for real-time wastewater monitoring. In January 2022, Ontario invested $15 million to build, upgrade and rehabilitate storm and wastewater infrastructure in the Lake Ontario basin. This includes optimizing plants, improving local sewer systems and investing in green infrastructure. The Regional Municipality of Durham is receiving $836,590 through this program which will help improve water quality in Lake Ontario.
Further, Ontario invested $6.3 million in 51 projects to protect and improve Lake Ontario. This includes projects under the Canada-Ontario Agreement (COA) Nutrients Annex commitments focused on the Lake Ontario basin and science/monitoring projects. In Durham, this includes monitoring exit loads of phosphorus to Lake Ontario from tributaries, monitoring nutrient and weather event discharges from tributaries, quantifying nutrient loadings and determining internal phosphorus loading in western Lake Ontario coastal wetlands.
The government will also be boosting science and monitoring capacity of Lake Ontario by making investments focused on monitoring and research with external partners to track, predict and better understand conditions in Lake Ontario. This work will ensure we continue to support and maintain the highest quality of water for Lake Ontario.
The results of the 2022 Municipal Elections are as follows:
Regional Chair, Regional Municipality of Durham
Clarington
Mayor
Regional Councillor - Wards 1 & 2
Regional Councillor - Wards 3 & 4
Local Councillor - Ward 1
Local Councillor - Ward 2
Local Councillor - Ward 3
Local Councillor - Ward 4
Oshawa
Regional & City Councillor - Ward 1
City Councillor - Ward 1
Regional & City Councillor - Ward 2
City Councillor - Ward 2
Regional & City Councillor - Ward 3
City Councillor - Ward 3
Regional & City Councillor - Ward 4
City Councillor - Ward 4
Regional & City Councillor - Ward 5
City Councillor - Ward 5
Whitby
Regional Councillors
North Ward 1
West Ward 2
Centre Ward 3
East Ward 4
Ajax
Ward 1 - Regional Councillor
Ward 1 - Local Councillor
Ward 2 - Regional Councillor
Ward 2 - Local Councillor
Ward 3 - Regional Councillor
Ward 3 - Local Councillor
Pickering
Regional Councillor - Ward 1
Regional Councillor - Ward 2
Regional Councillor - Ward 3
Brock
Regional Councillor
Councillor Ward 1
Councillor Ward 2
Councillor Ward 3
Councillor Ward 4
Councillor Ward 5
Uxbridge
Ward 1
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5
Scugog
Voting extended until 9:30 p.m. No results available at time of posting.
The 2022 Municipal Elections will be held on Monday, October 24. In order to help members make an informed decision, DRHBA emailed three questions to all candidates running for local and regional positions. Responses have been organized by municipality and can be viewed here:
Candidates - Pickering
Candidates - Ajax
Candidates - Whitby
Candidates - Oshawa
Candidates - Clarington
Candidates - Brock
Candidates - Region of Durham
**Please note that no responses were received from candidates in contested wards in Uxbridge and Scugog.**
Information on how and where to vote, what ward you are in and how to ensure you are registered to vote can be found on each municipality's website. Links are provided below.
Pickering Voter Information
Ajax Voter Information
Whitby Voter Information
Oshawa Voter Information
Clarington Voter Information
Brock Voter Information
Uxbridge Voter Information
Scugog Voter Information
To register for October 13th, click here!
To register for November 3rd, click here!
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Phone: 905-579-8080
Email: info@drhba.com
Address:
1-1255 Terwillegar Avenue
Oshawa, Ontario
L1J 7A4
Copyright © 2019, Durham Region Home Builder's Association, All Rights Reserved Durham Region Home Builders' Association is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization. 1-1255 Terwillegar Avenue Oshawa, Ontario L1J 7A4