RESCON AGM offered up both good and bad news

By Grant Cameron

Feb. 6, 2026

There was both good and bad news offered by speakers at RESCON’s annual general meeting Jan. 22.

The bad news? 

Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa, reported that slowing new home sales aren’t just isolated to downtown Toronto and Vancouver. The market weakness extends to other cities across the nation like Calgary and Edmonton.

The good news?

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the meeting that his government is ready to work with residential builders to kick-start the industry as it is critical to the long-term prosperity of the province.

He listed a litany of actions the province has already taken to streamline approvals, cut red tape and reduce sales taxes on new housing. Refreshingly, he also acknowledged more needs to be done. 

The meeting, and remarks from dignitaries, generated a fair bit of coverage in the media.

Editor John Tenpenny wrote an article in ReNew Canada and Patrick Flannery penned an article in Canadian Contractor magazine. Ontario Construction News also ran an article on the event.

I wrote one article for Daily Commercial News on Ford’s remarks and another article on Moffatt’s presentation, as well as an article for Canadian Forest Industries.

Development charges

We tackled the thorny issue of exorbitant development charges in a column in Canadian Real Estate Wealth, another in Daily Commercial News, and yet another in Senso Magazine.

Fixes for the industry

We addressed the state of the industry and suggested fixes in several columns.

In Ontario Construction News, an article pointed out the number of jobs that could be lost due to the decline in construction.

We laid out our possible solutions in columns in Canadian Forest Industries, Builder Bites, Canadian Real Estate Wealth, Real Estate Magazine Canada and Ontario Construction News.

Tax legislation

We discussed the importance of sales tax rebates for first-time homebuyers in a column in The Toronto Sun and on an episode of CREB TV, RESCON president Richard Lyall discussed what needs to happen to get the industry back on track.

Report card

RESCON’s housing report card continued to receive coverage. The Brantford Expositor ran an article. noting that rental apartment construction has skyrocketed in that city.

Tiebacks

In On-Site, Lyall wrote a column on the risks of restricting or tampering with the use of tiebacks.

Meanwhile, a new report released by RESCON and other groups sounded the alarm over the proposal.

AEDS

An article in Canadian Contractor, addressed the importance of a guide to help employers build a policy governing the use of Automated External Defibrillators. We also distributed a press release on the guide.