Ontario should speed up new housing approvals, increase skilled trade immigration, and “rein in” municipalities introducing varying green building standards, a residential builders’ group is telling the government.

The province is sifting through a mountain of requests for funding and policy changes as it prepares the budget, and as Premier Doug Ford’s development-eager government looks for ways to boost housing supply, proposals from groups like the Residential Construction Council of Ontario could point to some next steps.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark has made numerous moves in recent years to speed up home construction, including controversial ones to give the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa “strong mayor” powers and allowing development on 15 parcels of protected Greenbelt lands.

He has said the laws and regulatory changes are all in service of the government’s goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

But it’s a target that current progress suggests may be difficult to reach. In 2022, the first full year of the 10-year period, just over 96,000 new homes were built.

That’s higher than the 86,600 the government projected in the fall economic statement, but still far short of the average 150,000 needed per year to hit 1.5 million.

Keep reading on globalnews.ca

• 
•