This article was first published by The Trillium, a Village Media publication.
In the first leaders’ debate of the Ontario election, Doug Ford declared he was the only candidate on the stage who believes in building housing.
“They say, ‘We want to build.’ They don't believe in building,” the Progressive Conservative leader said in the debate hosted by the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM).
The debate saw Ford face a barrage of attacks from Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Leader Mike Schreiner over his PC government’s shortcomings in dealing with housing affordability in the province.
Crombie said Ford likes to tell a “folksy tale” about building housing but, in reality, “didn’t get it done.” In response, he criticized the Liberal leader for not building enough housing during her time as mayor of Mississauga.
Stiles at one point interjected, saying, “It’s outrageous, these two, fighting over who’s built the least homes in Ontario at a time when we have a housing and homelessness crisis.”
Responding to Stiles’ criticisms, Ford accused her of opposing every housing measure his government has taken.
And to Schreiner’s, Ford said the Green leader “won't cut down a dandelion to put the shovels in the ground.”
“Let’s look at the record of the last seven years — housing starts are at an all-time low in Ontario. Housing prices are at an all-time high in Ontario,” Schreiner shot back at Ford.
“Why is that? Most of the (PC) government’s housing plans have been: how do we unlock profits for wealth land speculators — instead of — how do we unlock affordable homes that people can afford?” Schreiner added. “The result of their housing record is we have a full generation of young people wondering if they'll ever be able to afford a home.”
Schreiner’s Green party released its platform on Thursday, the day before the debate. Housing is one of its main focuses, with measures they’re proposing including to allow four storeys and fourplexes as-of-right in all urban boundaries, sixplexes as-of-right in big cities, axing development charges on homes under 2,000 sq. ft. and waiving the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers.
Crombie has also promised that if she’s elected premier she would eliminate the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers, downsizing seniors and non-profit home builders and scrap development charges on homes under 3,000 sq. ft.
Stiles’ party’s “Homes Ontario” plan would see an Ontario NDP government become a builder of homes, itself, to “double” the supply of affordable homes, construct 60,000 new supportive housing units, legalize fourplexes provincewide, increase density around transit and fund non-profit and co-op housing providers.
Ford’s PCs haven’t released a housing plan of their own during the campaign. They have promised to allocate another $5 billion to the Building Ontario Fund to invest in projects including housing, and another $2 billion in the province’s Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, if re-elected.
Housing had been a major focus of the Ford government’s after the last provincial election in 2022. Its housing plans, however, went sideways after the Greenbelt scandal exploded in the summer of 2023. Over the latter part of that year, it backtracked on several major housing policy moves made earlier in its same mandate.
Over the last couple of years, the PCs have fallen significantly behind the pace needed to meet their main housing goal: facilitating the construction of 1.5 million homes in Ontario from 2022 to 2031.