TORONTO, ON – Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Critic for Housing, released the following statement:
“Doug Ford and his Conservative government have mismanaged the housing file so poorly that they can’t keep up with their own housing targets. Instead of doing the hard work to course correct — such as implementing their own Task Force’s recommendations — they are instead celebrating municipal achievements and trying to claim them as their own.
While Belleville, Whitchurch-Stouffville and Welland were busy making it easier to build homes, Doug Ford wasted time with his scandalous $8.3 billion Greenbelt Giveaway to benefit his well-connected insiders.
If the Ford Conservatives were serious about building housing, they would implement the following measures — immediately:
- Allow construction of at least four units and buildings of at least four storeys on any residential lot, by right, provincewide.
- Allow construction of residential buildings of at least eight storeys, by right, on all major streets.
- Introduce minimum height and density requirements within 800 metres of all subway, BRT, and LRT stops, emulating the recent policies adopted by British Columbia.
- Introduce market-based parking requirements in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, as well as in Ottawa.
- Limit the right to third-party Ontario Land Tribunal appeals against affordable, supportive, and transitional housing projects.
- Require home builders to include at least 20% long-term affordable units as a condition of the sale of all provincial surplus lands for housing development.
- Invest in the Landlord-Tenant Board to streamline its processes, clear the current backlog of over 53,000 cases, and set a target of resolving disputes within 6-8 weeks.
Only Bonnie Crombie and Ontario’s Liberals take the housing crisis seriously. Ford and Calandra just take municipal achievements as their own.”