A government-appointed task force grappling with Ontario’s skyrocketing housing prices is calling for a major increase in new construction and density in the province’s cities and suburbs.

In a report released Tuesday, the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force proposed measures to spur the building of 1.5 million new homes within the next 10 years.

Housing affordability ranks as one of the top concerns of Ontarians in the lead-up to June’s provincial election. House prices have nearly tripled, to an average of $923,000, in the past decade, far outpacing increases in average income. The housing crisis has also made it difficult for businesses and public services to attract and retain workers and pushed Toronto into the top spot worldwide (tied with Bogota, Colombia) for average commute times at 96 minutes each way, according to the report.

While some of the 55 recommendations coined by the nine-member task force, the majority of whom work in real estate and development, have long been widely endorsed across political and social stripes, others are more contentious.

The task force called for provincewide limits to municipal zoning rules that often block construction of new multi-unit housing. Toronto has a far lower population density than other cities in the world, like New York and London. As much as 70 per cent of residential land is restricted to single-detached or semi-detached homes, while an estimated half of Ottawa is zoned for single homes only, severely limiting options for increasing density.

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