The Ontario government is expected to announce sweeping housing changes on Tuesday that will override municipal zoning laws in some situations and allow for the construction of up to three units on each residential lot.
CTV News Toronto has learned that, as part of the housing legislation, the City of Toronto will be on the hook for the creation of 285,000 new homes by 2032.
The Ontario government has said it will be assigning housing targets to municipalities based on population size and growth.
Ottawa has been assigned a housing target of 161,000 while Mississauga has a target of 120,000 and Brampton has a goal of 113,000 homes.
Each city will have to develop “pledges” outlining how they will meet the targets. It is unclear what will happen if municipalities do not meet their housing goals.
The government is expected to introduce a number of legislative changes and proposals on Tuesday that will help “build housing faster and bring costs down” and allow the Progressive Conservatives to meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years.
As part of this plan, the PCs will be allowing more “missing middle” homes to be built without further planning approvals.
Under the legislation, up to three units could be built on a single residential lot without any bylaw amendments or municipal permissions. For example, a basement apartment and garden house could be built on a property and rented out to tenants. Duplexes and triplexes could also be built on single residential lots, regardless of municipal zoning laws.
These units would be exempt from development charges and parkland dedication fees under the new legislation.
Officials hope this will create a “broader mix of rental housing.”
Ontario will also scrap fees—including development charges, parkland dedication levies and community benefit charges—for affordable housing, non-profit housing and “inclusionary zoning units.” This is in addition to reducing development charges up to 25 per cent for family-sized rental units.
Conservation authority fees for development permits will be temporarily frozen.
A number of proposals that would allow the government to “streamline processes” to get housing built, including removing the requirement for municipalities to hold public meetings for every development draft plan, focusing site plan reviews on health and safety issues rather than landscaping details, and allowing ministry staff to make certain decisions on aggregate development applications rather than waiting for a minister’s approval.
These new changes come the same day the government raised its on homes purchased by foreign nationals from 20 per cent to 25 per cent—the highest tax rate in Canada.
The tax hike goes into effect today.
This is a developing news story. More to come.
