Front Burner - The backlash to Doug Ford’s housing plan

Episode Date: November 29, 2022

On Monday, Ontario passed the “More Homes Built Faster Act” – a controversial part of Premier Doug Ford’s plan for 1.5 million new homes in the next decade. Bill 23 includes measures like reducing developer fees that cities say are crucial for services and infrastructure and permits triplexes on single residential lots. Ford has also already given the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa extraordinary powers, including overruling majority votes in city council in certain circumstances. And the Ford government is moving to open up parts of the province’s Greenbelt for development – a supposedly permanently protected area that Ford said he wouldn’t “touch.” Today, CBC Toronto reporter Ryan Patrick Jones joins us to explain the controversies over Ford’s housing plan, and why critics say it’s the wrong kind of vision for a growing province.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. You ask anyone to try to build a home, sometimes it takes two to three years to get approval from the municipalities. Folks, this is Economics 101.

It's very simple, supply and demand. Ontario Conservative leader Doug Ford is speaking from the debate stage here, ahead of the province's elections this past June. And he's arguing the way out of the province's very real housing and affordability crisis is to build a lot more homes. His campaign actually promised to build 1.5 million new homes in the next 10 years. We're going to keep working with

municipalities to cut through the red tape and accelerating permitting and approvals. Fast forward to now, and re-elected Premier Doug Ford is approaching this very popular goal in a way that's drawing a lot of anger across the province. Ford is moving to open up large swaths of environmentally protected lands for development. He's already given some mayors extraordinary powers, powers that in some cases will let them overrule city councils, and he's ordered cities to expand their boundaries against their will. Then just yesterday, Ontario passed a bill that will reduce fees that developers pay to municipalities. Some cities say this could leave them with huge financial holes. To take us through Ford's housing plan and its many controversies, Ryan Patrick-Jones is here.

He's a reporter with CBC Toronto. We spoke yesterday just before Bill 23 passed. before Bill 23 passed. Ryan, hey, thank you so much for coming on to FrontBurner. Thanks for having me. So Doug Ford campaigned this summer on building 1.5 million homes. And help me understand why Ford is on this path, right? Why does he want this many new homes? Right. So Ontario is facing both a housing shortage and a housing affordability crisis at the same time, as are many other places in this country. There are just simply not enough homes, apartments, condos available to house people. And those that are available are

increasingly unaffordable. And we're also not building at the rate necessary to accommodate a growing population. You know, just recently, the federal government announced it hopes to bring in 500,000 new immigrants per year by 2025. The majority of those people are going to end up in Ontario and many of them in the greater Toronto area specifically. So there's a dire need for housing here. And it's become a major issue of concern for Ontario residents, young people especially. I mean, they're the ones that have to live with their parents for longer, they're priced out of the real estate market, or they have to pay sky-high rents. Polling shows housing is ranking up there with the cost of living and healthcare as top political issues. So in response, the Ford government has made

increasing the housing supply over the coming years basically priority number one. And there are different reports citing different numbers for what's needed. For example, the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation says 2.5 million units are needed by 2030. But then a group of experts convened by the Ford government called the Housing Affordability Task Force, they delivered a report earlier this year, and it said the target should be 1.5 million homes. So the Ford government has basically adopted that. We're going to make sure that we streamline the process, make sure we standardize the process, speed up the permitting. We're cutting everything we can to make sure that

they get the permits out the door and out getting people building. Maybe I'll just mention, you mentioned sky-high rents here. I was just reading that rent in Toronto is up 20% from last year. So this is clearly an incredibly dire situation. And so let's get into how Ford is trying to accomplish this goal of building 1.5 million new homes. One of the big parts of his housing push is opening up more land to build houses on. And how is his government looking at opening up protected land in what Ontario calls its Green Belt? This has been pretty controversial. Absolutely. So the Green Belt was created in 2005 to protect environmentally sensitive areas, to preserve land for agriculture, and to stop urban sprawl. It's this vast 810,000 hectare area. It's got farmland, forests, wetlands, rivers, and lakes.

It's actually the world's largest environmentally protected area, according to the Greenbelt Foundation. And Ford promised during the 2018 election that he would not touch the Greenbelts. He actually got in some trouble when a video surfaced of him during his leadership campaign where he was saying that he would open up a big chunk for development. We will open up the Greenbelt,

not all of it, but we're going to open a big chunk of it up and we're going to start building. I've already talked to some of the biggest developers in this country. And again, I wish I could say it's my idea, but it was their idea as well. Give us property, we'll build, and we'll drive the cost down. But there was a really fierce public backlash to that.

And so he reversed course. He said the people have spoken. We won't touch the green belt. We'll keep it as it is. Of course, you know, he said the people have spoken. We won't touch the Greenbelt. We'll keep it as it is. We'll figure out how to clean up this housing mess and this housing crisis that we're facing in a different fashion. But all my friends, I listen to you.

You don't want me touching the Greenbelt. We won't touch the Greenbelt. But just a couple of weeks ago, the province came out with this surprise announcement, and it's now proposing to open up 15 areas of the Greenbelt for housing construction. So it's currently in the middle of a 30-day consultation period. And basically what it's proposing to do is remove approximately 2,995 hectares from the Greenbelt and to open it up for housing development. They're also going to add two other areas to the Greenbelt in exchange. So ultimately, the Greenbelt would grow in size. And the government says it chose these 15 areas to remove and to open for housing development because they're close to existing urban areas.

And the government says, you know, this will lead to the construction of around 50,000 homes. You know, unsurprisingly, as you mentioned, when he brought this up during the election, there was huge pushback. And so there has been huge pushback to this plan. And talk to me a little bit more about what the reaction has been, including the reaction over who stands to profit from this change. Yeah, so we actually, we looked into the property and corporate ownership records to see kind of who owns that land that's being proposed for removal. And we found that, you know, several well-established GTA developers own a lot of the land that's going to now be open for housing. Several of the purchases of this land were made since Ford came to power in 2018. One was actually just as recent as two and a half months ago.

The NDP raised that. These developers bought the protected land at a very cheap price, and now with a stroke of your pen, they can develop that land for incredible profit. These developers are the ones that stand to benefit from basically, you know, a potential windfall increase in the value of that land that will come from opening it up to housing development. And one example is the Degasperis family. So they appear to be among the biggest winners. They're a prominent family of developers.

They run a group of companies known for building subdivisions in the GTA. And so we found companies controlled by brothers Silvio, Carlo, and Michael DeGasparis. They own land in three of the 15 areas that are being proposed for removal from the Greenbelt. Another measure I just want to touch on with you to open up more land here is one the Ford government has already started ordering cities to do, which is to expand their boundaries. Tell me more about how they're trying to force cities to expand. Right. So on the same day that the Greenbelt proposal came out, the province also approved tens of thousands of hectares of land for urban development by, as you said,

expanding their urban boundaries. The city of Hamilton actually decided last year, after a years-long public consultation process, to build up instead of out. But now the province is overriding that decision and opening up several thousand hectares of mostly farmland for housing. And of course, the farmers aren't pleased about this. Environmentalists aren't pleased about this. Right. So the province says these changes are necessary to plan for future growth and housing needs. But a lot of people point out that a lot of these areas are not even serviced by infrastructure at the moment. They don't have water infrastructure. They don't have sewers.

They don't necessarily have local roads. A lot of that is going to have to be built. There's a cost now for the municipalities to do that. And ultimately, they fear that this is going to lead to a lot more urban sprawl, car-dependent suburbs of low-density, single-family homes. And people fear that that's just not the right kind of development that we should be pursuing these days. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life changing connection. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization.

Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo.

50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. All right, so those are the controversial measures for opening up more land. The other big part of Ford's plan, as I understand it, involves cutting down obstacles and checks for new developments getting started, right? And this government has really criticized slowdowns and bureaucracy at the city level for preventing new development, which is a criticism that's been lobbed by a lot of people at local governments. So

in September, how did Ford change the power dynamics in some of the biggest cities? Right. So the Housing and Portability Task Force identified the municipal approval process as one of the areas where housing is being slowed down. This is both within the requirements that cities place on developers and their applications, but also in how city councils can approve or disapprove projects. You know, often local residents will voice concerns to new developments in their communities, and the local councillors are quite responsive to those concerns because ultimately those residents are their voters. And so one of the ways the province is

proposing to get around this is by expanding the authority of mayors. And so it started by expanding the authorities of the mayors in Toronto and Ottawa. It's an idea that's been on the premier's wish list since he was a city councillor. I just think it's the right thing to do. Since all the responsibility falls on the mayor, he needs the ability and the responsibility to make decisions. So in the summer, it passed a law that will give these mayors the ability to veto bylaws that were approved by council,

if doing so would advance the provincial priorities of housing and transit and infrastructure. These mayors can also draft and table their city's annual budgets. They can also create or reorganize entire municipal departments and hire and fire senior staff members. And beyond that, the province has now proposed a new law that hasn't passed yet, but if it does pass, it will give these mayors the ability to bring forward bylaws on their own and pass them with one third majority vote. Again, if they're going to do this, it must align with the provincial priorities such as building housing, transit and infrastructure. But, you know, in Toronto, that means Mayor John Tory would only need the support of eight of the 26 members of council to pass a bylaw. And it actually came out that Tory himself requested this change from Doug Ford before the municipal elections in October. You impugned the privilege of this assembly

by requesting that Premier Ford provide you undemocratic minority rule powers. Councillor Josh Matlow standing up during Mayor John Tory's declaration to ask that he rescind that request to the province for strong mayor powers. I am committing here today first that I will only utilize this measure on housing and transit matters of citywide importance. Second that any proposed use would always be preceded by a staff report independently written by our staff. And thirdly, that I will, without exception, without exception, try first to forge a consensus through the use of the council process. He didn't mention it during the election campaign,

but now Ford is granting that through this proposed legislation. Right. And the criticisms of this bottom line is that it's anti-democratic, right? Absolutely. I mean, this appears to do away with representative democracy by reducing the role of counselors. I'm not aware of any other democratic body in the province or even the country that operates on minority rule like this. You know, critics say that this could make the mayor is basically just an extension of the government in power. Critics say that this could make the mayor is basically just an extension of the government in power. Some point out that Tory and an outgoing Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson, rarely, if ever, lost votes at council. And join now to talk more about this, our mayor, Jim Watson. I mean, it sounds great for those in your position, more power to you.

But you are not convinced you actually urged Ford to drop this plan. Yeah, Patricia, it's really a solution looking for a problem. We didn't ask for additional powers. I didn't ask for additional powers as mayor. I've worked well over the last three terms of council. We've got about 98.2% of the issues that I brought forward for votes have passed. And there's worry about the impact that these powers could have in the future, unintended consequences of changing our democratic system like this. And I just want to briefly touch on the part here that's probably angered cities the most. When new projects are built, how much would this new act that the provincial government is putting forward change the money cities get from developers? In a big way. Yeah. So as part of a

huge suite of measures in Bill 23, the government's proposing a number of policies to kind of reduce the burden, both the regulatory burden, but also the financial cost on developers when it comes to building new housing. And so one of those proposals, basically the province is proposing to limit the amount of money that developers have to pay to municipalities in the form of development fees, community benefits charges, and parkland fees. So these are fees that developers who are building a project will pay to the city. And basically the money goes towards building parks, building daycares, libraries, community centers, roads, sidewalks, and water, sewer, and other infrastructure that is meant to support new residents.

And the principle here is that growth should pay for growth. So if you're a developer and you're building housing that's going to bring in new residents, you should have to pay for the infrastructure that is necessary to serve those new residents. And so municipalities across Ontario are basically warning that this is just going to blow a huge hole in their budgets. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which represents 444 municipalities, has estimated that legislation could leave municipalities short about $5 billion by the end of this decade. Wow. And this kind of loss of revenue, you know, it comes at a time when cities are already experiencing a major financial hangover from the increased costs of COVID-19. Just as an example, Toronto has an $815 million budget shortfall this year and an even bigger

one next year. And so it estimates that, you know, if this law is passed in its current form, it would lose another $230 million per year. That would make it much harder for the city to balance its budget, which, you know, is a legal requirement for cities in Ontario. They're not allowed to run a budget deficit. So municipal leaders are warning that, you know, this could lead to higher property taxes, service cuts, more likely both. So far, the province hasn't committed to replacing those funds, although it has said it does want to work with the federal government to plug any budget holes. We've talked so much about how cities and farmers and environmental groups think this is a bad plan, right? That these measures go too far. But what about whether it actually goes far enough? Do experts and advocates

think this will actually get us to 1.5 million homes, which, as we've talked about, we desperately, desperately need? Right. So basically, in order to get to that target, we're going to have to kind of double the pace of housing construction. And so it's unclear if the development industry can really build fast enough to meet that target. There are concerns about, you know, whether we have enough workers, construction workers, especially to, you know, be able to build this much. Canada is facing a major labor shortage, especially when it comes to the skilled trades. You know, it's a rapidly aging industry. Many older workers are retiring. Just as one example, a report from an industry group, BuildForce, says the province is on track to be short almost 30,000 construction workers by 2027. Beyond that, there are also questions, you know,

about whether they're choosing the right policies to get there. You know, the task force said very clearly that a shortage of land to build housing on is not the problem in Ontario. There is enough land available in existing built up areas that can be densified or on undeveloped land that is outside of the green belt that, you know, could be zoned for development. We just need to make better use of it. And so the task force was really calling for increasing density by changing exclusionary zoning rules that kind of favor single family homes, but also building density around transit. You know, too many municipalities reserve too much land for the most expensive and the least dense form of housing, the single family home, right? task force recommended allowing homeowners of detached homes to be able to convert that unit

into four units and being able to build up to four stories as of right, meaning they don't have to go through a cumbersome approval process in order to get permission to do that. So that would mean more fourplexes, basement suites, garden suites, laneway suites, townhomes, these kinds of things. And the Ford government did make some movement on that, but they're only proposing three units as the maximum as of right. This is something that Toronto already allows. They recently made some changes over the past couple of years. So it's a less ambitious proposal. It'll only lead to 50,000 new homes over the next 10 years, according to the government's own estimates. And some really see this as a missed opportunity to kind of force greater densities and open up these

areas for a wider variety of housing. Right. And maybe it's worth saying here that this task force that we're talking about that made all these recommendations, it was actually a housing affordability task force. And what the experts and city staff actually think about whether this plan that the Ford government is putting forward will make houses more affordable. Right. So yeah, there's a lot of concern. People are saying that there's very little that will ensure that housing is affordable or even supportive housing will come out of this plan. The province appears to be making a bit of a bet here that, you know, by increasing the supply of housing, that will better meet the demand and therefore bring prices down. Right, that the market will take care of it. Exactly. But, you know,

critics are pointing out the market being the way it is right now, it's unlikely to provide affordable housing on its own. And that's where there really is a role for governments. You know, they can build affordable housing themselves, or they can require developers to build it through policy. So in Toronto, for example, it has an inclusionary zoning policy, which basically requires developers that are building new condos near transit that they make a certain percentage of those units affordable.

And they mandate that through a bylaw. But this new bill, Bill 23, it's now proposing to cap the number of units where inclusionary zoning policies would apply. It would cap that at 5%, which is basically the minimum that's required by Toronto's policy. So there's concern there that municipalities will be limited in how much affordable housing units they can mandate.

And you know, Ryan, before we go, I just want to maybe put a point on the fact that measures to build more houses, they should actually be pretty popular, right? And this is not an easy task. And is the Ford government getting any credit here for taking action on housing problems at all, right? Because in the past, there's been such little political will to do so. And this government, I guess, is making this priority. Absolutely. So, you know, is making this priority. Absolutely. So, you know, we do have a real housing crisis here. And to its credit, the government is definitely getting some kudos for taking action to address it.

But really, the question becomes, are they choosing the right policies? Is it encouraging the right kind of development? Do we want more urban sprawl, more car-dependent subdivisions where people have to drive everywhere in an era of climate crisis? And what gets lost in the pursuit of that goal? You know, is it worth sacrificing the principle of majority rule in order to achieve our housing targets? Is it worth paving over more farmland, removing environmental protections, this kind of thing? So these are questions the voters of Ontario will have to answer on their own once they see how this all plays out. Okay. Ryan, thank you for this. This is very interesting. Thank you. You're welcome, Jamie.

All right. That is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.