The housing crisis can be fixed - we just need the will
By Richard Lyall
for Daily Commercial News
Oct. 16, 2026
For years, politicians have described Ontario's housing challenges as a market problem, an affordability issue, or simply the result of rapid population growth. But the reality is the housing crunch is largely a policy-made crisis, which means it can also be fixed with proper planning.
The province is now facing more than just high housing prices. We are confronting a crisis of confidence. Many aspiring homeowners no longer believe ownership is realistically within reach, while renters face growing insecurity and municipalities struggle with rising homelessness. What was once seen as a temporary downturn has evolved into a structural failure of the housing system.
The causes are well understood.
For decades, Ontario failed to build enough housing to keep pace with population growth. At the same time, immigration-driven demand increased, construction costs rose, interest rates climbed, and government-imposed charges continued to accumulate. The result is a widening gap between supply and demand that has pushed affordability beyond the reach of many middle-class families.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the crisis is that government policies now contribute significantly to the cost of housing itself. Government-imposed taxes, fees, levies and development charges account for more than one-third of the price of a new home. Development charges alone can exceed $100,000 per unit in some jurisdictions, costs that are ultimately passed on to buyers.
At the same time, Ontario has set an ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes by 2031. Yet even after several years of legislative reforms, approximately 1.24 million homes are still needed to reach that goal. Housing starts are moving in the wrong direction, and current construction levels are falling well short of what is required.
The good news is that the solutions are neither mysterious nor unattainable.
The first priority should be reforming the development approval process. Lengthy municipal approval timelines act as a hidden tax on housing. Every month a project sits waiting for permits adds financing costs, increases uncertainty and discourages investment. A mandatory province-wide permit “shot clock” that requires municipalities to process applications within defined timelines would eliminate unnecessary delays and help restore certainty to the market.
Second, Ontario must tackle development charges. Reductions announced recently are only temporary.
While municipalities need infrastructure funding, placing the entire burden on new homebuyers is both inequitable and counterproductive. Roads, water systems and community amenities benefit entire communities over decades. Funding those assets through long-term infrastructure bonds or broader tax-supported mechanisms would distribute costs more fairly and reduce the upfront burden imposed on housing construction.
Third, governments must focus on support for skilled-trades recruitment and apprenticeship completion.
Nationwide, apprenticeship enrolments hit a record high of more than 101,500 in 2024, but completions of these programs have remained below pre-pandemic levels. Almost 47,000 apprentices received certification in 2024, or a rate of 19.9 per cent. In comparison, a decade earlier, 93,500 Canadians enrolled in a skilled trade and 59,400 received their certifications.
A report done for RESCON earlier this year indicated that the apprenticeship system needs to be overhauled to incorporate principles of behavioural science - an understanding of why people behave as they do - to boost completion numbers.
To its credit, the federal government is trying to close the gap by bringing back a $5,000 apprenticeship completion bonus for Red Seal trades that was scrapped at the beginning of 2025. Small and medium employers will also receive up to $10,000 for every first-year apprentice in a Red Seal trade they hire. Meanwhile, starting next spring, apprentices will receive a top-up of $400 a week for in-class learning.
Fourth, federal and provincial governments must provide long-term certainty for housing programs. Housing development decisions are measured in years, not months. The National Housing Strategy and related funding streams need to be renewed and strengthened beyond their current timelines to provide municipalities, non-profit housing providers and private-sector builders with the confidence to plan and invest.
Fifth, all levels of government must implement permanent, predictable and functional long-term reforms. Chief among them is making the one-year HST enhanced rebate relief on new housing permanent, as it is creating market uncertainty. Temporary measures have a short-term kick, but what happens next and when?
Ideally, the tax should be withdrawn entirely from new home purchases. At a minimum, governments should fully restore and index the original GST rebate mechanism so that tax relief keeps pace with inflation and rising housing costs.
No other jurisdiction other than the GTA and Vancouver have taxed the pants off housing. The measures are not income tested and have hammered new home buyers and renters. Hence young families and entrepreneurs are leaving.
The Double Land Transfer Tax for those buying a home in the City of Toronto is also a killer and preventing empty-nesters from downsizing. The tax means buyers pay the provincial Ontario Land Transfer Tax and the municipal Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax.
Finally, governments must stop measuring success by announcements and start measuring it by outcomes. Since 2019, Ontario has introduced a series of housing-related reforms aimed at reducing red tape and increasing supply. While many of those initiatives moved policy in the right direction, the cumulative impact has not yet matched the scale of the challenge.
The consequences of failure are impossible to ignore. A province where workers cannot afford to live near jobs and young families cannot envision homeownership is a province that risks losing both talent and opportunity.
The path forward is clear. Reduce unnecessary government costs, impose firm approval timelines, and hold all levels of government accountable for measurable outcomes.
Ontario's housing crisis was decades in the making. It will not be solved overnight. But the solutions are already on the table.
What remains uncertain is not what to do, but whether governments have the resolve to act with the speed and scale the crisis demands.
Richard Lyall is president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). He has represented the building industry in Ontario since 1991. Contact him at media@rescon.com.