Ontario Provincial “More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022/2023”

Ontario Provincial More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022/2023

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:

• Creating a new attainable housing program to drive the development of housing. Sites across all regions of Ontario will be considered, including those in the north, central, east and southwest regions.
• Increasing the Non-Resident Speculation Tax rate from 20 per cent to 25 per cent to deter non-resident investors from speculating on the province’s housing market and help make home ownership more attainable for Ontario residents.
• Freezing and reducing government charges to spur new home construction and reduce the costs of housing.
• Building more density near transit, unlocking innovative approaches to design and construction, and removing red tape to get shovels in the ground faster.
• Increasing consumer protection measures for home buyers and consulting on ways to help more renters become homeowners.

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.

Quick Facts

• Ontario is expected to grow by more than two million people over the next 10 years, with approximately 70 per cent of this growth taking place in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region.
• Ontario’s first housing plan, More Homes, More Choice was released in 2019. It was followed by More Homes for Everyone in spring 2022. Ontario is seeing strong progress resulting from these plans, with annual housing starts well above average for the past 30 years.
• The government is committed to developing a new housing supply action plan for every year of its current mandate to continue delivering real, long-term housing solutions.
• A Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team, made up of municipal leaders and industry experts, will provide advice on market housing initiatives.
• In Fall 2022, the government passed the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act which gives the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa more powers to work effectively with the province to reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing the supply of housing.
• In Spring 2022, Ontario committed to provide comments on any applications for housing developments within 45 days. For more complex applications, the province is providing upfront guidance to help ensure that commitment is met. This includes Ontario’s planned highway corridor management system, which will provide a seamless and integrated online platform for approvals and permits along provincial highways.

Highlights from the Ontario provincial legislation “More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022/2023 :

1. Building more homes
   1. Address the missing middle – building without further planning approvals, three units permitted “as of right”
   2. Near transit – accelerating growth in 29 of Ontario’s largest municipalities
2. Reducing costs, fees, and taxes
   1. Freeze, reduce and exempt fees to spur new home construction
      1. Affordable housing, non-profit housing and inclusionary zoning units, and select attainable housing units would be exempt from developmental charges, parkland dedication levies and community benefit charges.
      2. Up to 25% discount for family-sized units
      3. Freezing Conservation Authority fees for development permits and proposals
      4. Reviewing all other fees associated with development levied by provincial ministries, boards, agencies and commissions
      5. Reducing development charges, parkland requirements and fees, and community benefit charges.
      6. Requiring municipalities to spend or allocate 60% of development charge and parkland reserve balances each year, to build infrastructure
   2. Reduce taxes on affordable housing
      1. Incentivizing affordable housing – review of assessment methodology, GST/HST incentives (partnering with the federal government) including rebates for homes over $450K, exemptions and deferrals
   3. Promote fairness to support affordable and other rental housing
      1. Reduce tax burden on apartment buildings – municipal consultation on reduction of current property tax on multi-residential apartment buildings
   4. Inclusionary Zoning and rental replacement rules –
      1. Making inclusionary zoning rules more consistent – maximum 25 year affordability period, 5% cap on the number of affordable units and a standardized approach to determine an affordable price/rent
      2. Rental replacement rules – consultation to protect renters while building more, reviewing municipal limits on rebuilding on demolished sites of 6+ units
3. Streamlining development approvals
   1. To get more homes built faster
      1. Streamline site plan control – remove site plan control requirements for projects of 10 units or less. For 10+ units propose accelerated approvals by focusing site plan reviews on health and safety rather than architectural or decorative landscape details
   2. Streamline process
      1. More efficient municipal approvals (date of proclaim will be announced at a later time) – proposed land for use policies and approvals for lower tier municipalities (Peel, York, Durham, Niagara, Halton, Simcoe, Waterloo)
      2. Fewer public meetings – making public meetings optional while accepting public feedback at early stages of process
      3. Aggregates – freeze on amendments will be lifted for aggregate projects, new official plans, secondary plans. Permitting ministry staff rather than minister to make certain decision on aggregate development applications. No changes to requirements.
   3. Improve the Ontario Land Tribunal – accelerate land tribunal decision making, prioritize cases that create most housing, establish service standards, clarify the OLT’s powers to dismiss appeals do to unreasonable delay. Limit third party appeals.
   4. Heritage planning
      1. Balancing the need for more housing with the need to protect heritage – identify and manage heritage properties effectively
   5. Natural Heritage planning
      1. Natural and environmental heritage – update the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System to remove duplicate requirements
4. Helping homebuyers and renters
   1. Attainable housing program
      1. Identify surplus provincial land in areas across Ontario
      2. Promote innovative building techniques such as modular construction
      3. Alternative ownership models like land lease and rent-to-own
      4. Reduced government charges to cut costs
      5. MZO’s if needed to accelerate approvals
   2. Strengthen the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST)
      1. Streamline approval process to encourage more development
      2. Launch consultations to explore new financing models
      3. Increase the NRST from 20% to 25% effective October 25, 2022
      4. Other Key changes
   3. Address vacant homes
      1. Introduce measures to introduce vacant home taxes. Policy framework coming Winter 2022
      2. Establish a provincial-municipal working group to consult on framework and best practices
   4. Protect homebuyers from unethical developers
      1. Increase the maximum Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) amount from $25,000 to $50,000
      2. Allow Home Construction Regulatory Authority to direct proceeds of AMP and/or fines to consumers who have been impacted by poor practices
      3. Permit retroactive application of AMP to contraventions that occurred on or after April 14, 2022
      4. Consultation on administrative penalties in late 2022, if passed would come into force in early 2023
      5. Price escalation consultations scheduled for 2023
5. Better planning
   1. Planning policy review – revoking the Parkway Belt West Plan and the Central Pickering Development Plan
   2. Identify more land for housing – identifying authority-owned land that can support housing development
   3. Build more schools in urban growth areas – new strategies for incorporating schools into high density areas

Additional Resources

• More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022
• Ontario’s More Homes Built Faster Plan
• Ontario’s Housing Supply Progress
• Ontario’s More Homes for Everyone Plan
• More Homes, More Choice
• Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act
• Ontario Continues to Crack Down on Foreign Real-Estate Speculation
• Ontario Doubling Fines for Unethical and Illegal New Home Cancellations