September housing starts 2x higher in BC than Ontario, adjusted for population
Yet Ontario PCs won’t follow BC NDP's proven path or even implement their own task force recommendations
The Ontario PC government failed again in September, spurring only 44 per cent of the housing starts the province’s own task force found were needed to rebalance the housing market.
Ontario’s tight housing supply tilts the housing market against renters, buyers and builders, favouring owners, sellers and speculators.
In Ontario, only 5,458 housing units were started in September, according to a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report released Wednesday.
In British Columbia, where the provincial government has led an aggressive campaign to remove construction barriers and spur housing starts, work began on 3,461 housing units in September, says CMHC.
The housing push for BC’s population of 5.6 million, if adjusted to Ontario’s 16.1 million residents, would have started 9,988 housing units in Ontario in September, almost double the actual Ontario result.
On a population adjusted basis, BC has outpaced Ontario every month since at least January 2022, frequently doubling Ontario’s pace.
Zero per cent say Ford PCs have done a very good job on housing
The Ontario government has now missed housing targets in each of the 28 months since the June 2022 election when the PC party pledged to hit targets based on their “realistic plan to actually tackle the underlying problem of supply.”
The months of failure are being noticed, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll released earlier this month. Asked to assess the PC government on housing affordability, responses were heavily opposed to the PCs’ results:
Very poor job - 54%
Poor job - 31%
Good job - 10%
Very good job - 0%
Housing affordability was ranked as a top issue by 39 per cent of respondents.
Ontario PCs say ‘no’ to BC NDP roadmap and own task force recommendations
While the BC government has proven a path to spurring housing construction, the Ford PCs have chosen to not follow it.
The BC government has introduced a speculation and vacancy tax to push more units into the market, restricted short-term rentals to prevent units from being taken out of the market, and ramped-up public investment in non-profit housing to supplement the market.
The BC government’s action plan includes steps to quicken permit approvals, provide renter tax credits, support home renovations that create new housing units, build transit hub density and promote multiplex housing.
In contrast, the Ford PC government recently backed out of a promise to ensure high density development around main transit hubs and has maintained bans on fourplex construction. They have refused to invest in non-profit housing, despite encouragement from housing experts ranging from community organizations to ScotiaBank, calling public investment a strategy “out of the playbook of communist Russia.”
A report by the Ontario Real Estate Association this spring found two thirds of the 55 recommendations from the PCs’ own Affordable Housing Task Force remain undone more than two years after being received by the government.
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