VAUGHAN, ONT. — The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) has issued a three-step proposal to address continuing housing supply and affordability issues in 2024.
RESCON is calling on political leaders from all three levels of government to step up their efforts and work in unison to tackle the housing crisis.
It is proposing three initial steps to create momentum: reduce taxes, fees, levies and development charges on new housing; streamline, speed up and simplify the development approvals system; and invest in offsite construction as a means of speeding up construction.
The statement notes taxes, fees and levies account for 31 per cent of the cost of a new home. On a $1-million home, a buyer is paying $310,000 to governments. Meanwhile, development charges on new housing are spiking in cities like Toronto.
“Last year was a painful year for housing construction and, at the rate we are going, we’re not even close to fixing the crisis,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “Ridiculous red tape, along with excessive fees, taxes, levies, development charges and bureaucracy are choking housing supply and pushing home ownership out of the reach of many. Builders often must wait years to get approval for projects. This is a major pinch point that is unnecessary and slows construction of new homes.”
Lyall said governments should cut the GST and HST on owner-occupied housing, especially for first-time homebuyers who are carrying the burden of accumulated excess taxation and red tape, similar to the federal initiative for purpose-built rental buildings. RRSP funds should be permitted for purchasing principal residences by domestic first-time buyers and those who are downsizing, he added.
RESCON also wants a modernized and digitized development approvals process that would move developments along more quickly.
“Notwithstanding all the talk of streamlining the system, the situation seems to have paradoxically worsened,” notes Lyall. “Modernization is proceeding at a glacial pace. We are deeply lagging in adopting digitization and technology to improve our development approvals process which only delays new residential construction projects.”
RESCON is also encouraging government leaders to provide financial assistance and tax breaks to create incentives for companies to build more modular housing manufacturing plants in Canada, as well as provide research and development funding so the industry can keep pace with new technology and building techniques.
The current Planning process is primarily to protect the City from liability from shoddy development, which hardly ever happens.
The City requires an irrevocable LC for Site Services and Landscaping for every project.
‘All’ they’d need to do is similar for a permit issue in 6 months.
ie.
Get applicant to submit a set list of Consultant Reports with the Application.
City then determines the amount of an LC or Bond indemnifying the City, related to the size of the project and the requirements of the Reports.
$5mil-$10mil..
Permit issued within 6 months.
City building inspector, who inspects the construction weekly, confirms that the project is being built in accordance with the Reports.
If there is an infraction, the City dings the LC for $500k?
That would only happen once in a Development and you can be sure that Developers would build in accordance with the permit and the Reports.
Only other alternative is to delete the Reports process which can drag for years and we know that’s NEVER going to happen.
Try deleting even ONE of the Reports..