BUILDING DURHAM

The Region of Durham has sent correspondence to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing detailing the Land Need Assessment adopted by Regional Council on May 25, 2022.

The correspondence can be viewed here.

The original staff report and recommendation can be viewed here.

The Region of Durham has released the Notice of Study Completion for the Schedule 'B' Class Environmental Study for the Zone 4 Water Storage and Pumping Facilities to Service North Whitby and North Oshawa.

The Class EA Project File Report (PFR) has been filed on the public record, as indicated in the attached Notice. The PFR will be made available from Monday, May 30^th 2022, until Friday, July 15th, 2022 on the Region of Durham project website at the following link: Public Works Projects (durham.ca)

Enbridge Gas will be transitioning to a province-wide online service request system known as GetConnected this summer! Sign up for one of the provincial or regional webinars to take a look at the new system and learn about important changes in the service request process. To learn more click the link below.

At Regional Council's May 25th, 2022 meeting, council voted 16-11 in favour of endorsing modified Scenario 2 (also known as "2a" or BILD's modified Scenario 2) for the Region's Land Need Assessment (LNA).

According to Report 2022-P-11, the approved scenario is as follows:

Refined BILD Modified Scenario 2

Much Needed Affordable Middle

Housing Unit Mix of New Units:

Low: 33%

Medium: 38%

High: 29%

Secondary units: In Low and Medium

Intensification Rate: 50%

Designated Greenfield Density: 57 people and jobs per hectare.

New Community Area Land Need: ~2,500 hectares (~6,178 acres)

The Region's Planning & Economic Development Committee had endorsed Scenario 2a, however Regional staff requested that Council instead endorse Scenario 4.

The original scenarios put forward included:

Council heard 17 delegations, the majority of which were in favour of Scenario 5.  Most of the delegates talked about climate change, losing farmland, and affordability to support their choice.

Councillor Joe Neal put forward an amendment to endorse Scenario 3, which was seconded by Councillor John Neal.  It lost 23-4.  In favour: Lee, Mulcahy, Joe Neal and John Neal.  Opposed: Ashe, Brenner, Carter, Chapman, Collier, Crawford, Dies, Drew, Foster, Grant, Highet, Kerr, Leahy, Marimpietri, Newman, Nicholson, Pickles, Roy, Ryan, Smith, Yamada, Wotton, Henry.

Mayor Collier put forward an amendment to endorse Scenario 4, seconded by Councillor Brenner.  It lost 17-10.  In favour: Collier, Brenner, Crawford, Dies, Drew, Highet, Lee, Nicholson, Smith, Wotton.  Opposed: Ashe, Carter, Chapman, Foster, Grant, Kerr, Leahy, Marimpietri, Neal, Neal, Newman, Pickles, Roy, Ryan, Yamada, Henry.

Councillor Joe Neal put forward a motion to refer it back to staff, to have staff bring back a new report to the September meeting.  Seconded by Councillor John Neal.  It lost 19-8.  In favour: Collier, Crawford, Highet, Lee, Mulcahy, Neal, Neal, Smith.  Opposed: Ashe, Brenner, Carter, Chapman, Dies, Drew, Foster, Grant, Kerr, Leahy, Marimpietri, Newman, Nicholson, Pickles, Roy, Ryan, Wotton, Yamada, Henry.

The final vote to endorse Scenario 2a won 16-11.  In favour: Ashe, Carter, Chapman, Foster, Grant, Kerr, Leahy, Marimpietri, Mulcahy, Newman, Nicholson, Pickles, Roy, Ryan, Yamada, Henry.  Opposed: Brenner, Collier, Crawford, Dies, Drew, Highet, Lee, Neal, Neal, Smith, Wotton.

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) have released their “Housing Supply Report,” providing a detailed analysis of housing supply and affordability across Canada. This report focuses on Canada’s 6 largest Census Metropolitan Areas, including Toronto & Ottawa. 

While we remain in the midst of a housing crisis, this report provides encouraging indicators of growth across our country.

Housing starts have struggled to keep up with population growth in some Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), especially Toronto. This can adversely affect centres such as Toronto and Vancouver, where affordability challenges are significant. 

• Apartments (includes units for rent or for ownership) dominate construction in large urban centres, such as Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver. In these CMAs, the various constraints (land, bylaws, etc.) may be more significant. In Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa, meanwhile, starts of houses (includes single, semi-detached, and row) remain strong. 
• The proportion of rental housing starts increased in several CMAs under review, including Montréal and Vancouver. However, they remain low in Toronto. 
• Toronto prevails in the construction of high-rise apartment buildings with hundreds of units (includes units for rent or for ownership). For many other CMAs, a multitude of buildings with fewer units and floors dominate the urban landscape. 
• Residential construction expanded in Canada’s 6 largest CMAs in 2021 compared to 2020. Rising prices, declining inventories and strong housing demand sustained by low interest rates provided confidence to developers and homebuilders to move ahead with new projects.
• • Numerous challenges however still exist around the availability of labour, skilled trades, supplies and infrastructure needed to start projects and see them through to completion. 
• In absolute terms, Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolitan area, started the most housing units in 2021. It also recorded a 9 % increase in housing starts compared to 2020, fueled by more apartment and single-detached home construction. However, it didn’t start the most units relative to its population.
• The Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force report indicated that Ontario must build 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years to address the province’s supply shortage. This ambitious target needs to be met with innovative means of encouraging new supply — for both the ownership and rental tenures. 
• • OHBA encourages all orders of government to work collaboratively with industry to build the supply and variety of housing options that Ontarians are demanding. 

OHBA President Bob Schickedanz provided commentary to the Financial Post on this report: https://financialpost.com/news/economy/supply-is-the-biggest-issue-affecting-housing-affordability-in-canada-cmhc-finds

For additional questions please contact OHBA's Manager of Government Relations, Alex Piccini.

Last week the Green Party of Ontario released their platform for the 2022 provincial election.  Contained in the platform is proposed solutions for the housing affordability crisis.

The team at OHBA has created a synopsis of their platform and how it relates to the residential construction industry, which you can view here.

Last week, the NDP released their 2022 provincial election platform, which contains proposed supply chain solutions aimed at addressing the housing affordability crisis in Ontario.

OHBA has prepared a brief synopsis of the platform, which can be viewed here.

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) is proud to announce Mr. Luca Bucci as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Bucci is a government veteran, having served as Chief of Staff for the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing where he held the post from January 2021 until March 2022. Prior to that, he served as Vice-President of the Chartered Accounts of Ontario, where he developed, maintained, and engaged in working relationships with elected and non-elected government officials to support the regulation of the accounting profession in the public interest. His previous roles include Chief of Staff to both the Ontario Minister of Transportation and the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.
 
That wealth of experience and government interaction, particularly his recent exposure to the home building industry, made Mr. Bucci the ideal candidate, says OHBA President Bob Schickedanz.
 
“It’s truly hard to understate how thorough and intensive the search was to identify our next CEO. It’s a process that commenced last October with the hiring of Boyden Canada: Executive Search and Consulting Firm, and included dozens of worthy candidates,” Schickedanz notes. “But the résumé and passion that Luca brought to the table were really special. He has an exceptional network at Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill and has shown ability to multitask in high-pressure situations with great attention to detail. I don’t think I’ve met anyone more passionate about the home building industry and the challenges Ontarians currently face with respect to housing affordability and supply. That’s particularly important given the need to build at least 1 million new homes in the next 10 years if we’re to accommodate the province’s forecasted population growth.”
 
“I am really excited to take on this opportunity at a really crucial time for our industry,” Bucci says. “Ontario is in a housing crisis, and all levels of government talking about the problem of housing supply and how it relates to housing prices. Our members are going to be a key piece to the solution. I also look forward to working with our locals to strengthen the base of OHBA and find innovative ways to address the needs of our members across the province.”
 
Luca looks forward to visiting each local association in person to better understand the needs of members in every region.
 
Please join us in welcoming Luca Bucci to the OHBA and our HBA family across Ontario.

-From OHBA

There’s a lot to be anxious about when it comes to our housing crisis, especially when you look at some of the numbers.

1 million - That’s how many homes we have to build over the next decade to meet our growing population.

923,000 - That’s the average price of a home in Ontario today. It was $329,000 a decade ago.

38 - That’s the average percentage increase in wages compared to the above jump in average home prices.

70 - That’s the percentage of land in Toronto alone restricted for single-detached or semi-detached homes, when what we need is townhouses, duplexes, and triplexes.

All these numbers can add up to a lot of stress for a lot of people. From renters who feel they’ll never own a home, to prospective residents unsure if they’ll be able to live in the same city where they work, to employers trying to find labour, to politicians trying to figure out the right policy.

But for those politicians, the numbers add up to a word: opportunity.

Housing is at the forefront of voters’ minds in this upcoming election and now all parties must have an answer.

This is the time, the critical time, for whoever becomes premier to make the necessary changes to build more units, exactly like the restrictive zoning rules in Toronto.

Now is the time for parties to commit to fixing the endless process, regulation and restrictions that have made it impossible to build more homes at the rate we need.

Now is the time to build not just single-detached or semi-detached, but townhouses, duplexes and triplexes, so we give people the options they need and prevent more urban sprawl from affecting our critical greenspaces.

It’s time to build with your ballot and build new neighbourhoods and perhaps YOUR future home.

Ontario’s population is expected to add another 2.7 million people over the next decade. That’s 910,000 net new households.

The promises and decisions our leaders make now will determine where those people will live, how they will live, and what it will cost them to live.

We may not be building enough today. But with the right changes, we can tomorrow.  

On May 9, 2022, the Ontario Liberal Party released their 2022 provincial election platform, which includes key supply side solutions aimed at addressing the housing affordability crisis in Ontario.

The team at OHBA has prepared a brief synopsis of their platform, which can be found here.