TORONTO — Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, released the following statement: “When it comes to building at least 1.5 million new homes by 2031, we need all hands on deck.
To do so, today we convened more than 75 organizations, including municipal partners, as part of Ontario’s first annual housing forum. Together, we’re discussing how we can continue to get more shovels in the ground sooner and build more homes faster, especially as we navigate difficult headwinds like high interest rates, labour force gaps and inflationary pressures on the cost of building materials.
The insights gathered at the forum will help inform our next housing supply action plan. This year’s forum focused on four main themes: building housing-enabling infrastructure, identifying barriers to missing middle housing, ensuring housing meets the needs of all Ontarians, and leveraging innovations like modular housing.
We continue to work closely with our municipal partners to implement in full or in principle the remaining recommendations from the Housing Affordability Task Force. We have already heard from mayors who agree that we need to be more ambitious in our shared commitment to build the homes the people of our province need, which includes prioritizing density near transit. The forum will build on our partnership, providing a platform for all partners to be a part of the solution.
Additionally, our government is developing a modular housing framework to help meet Ontario’s housing demands and also position the province’s construction industry to be a leader in innovative housing construction, including modular home manufacturing. We intend to use a ready-to-go Request for Qualification process which is a transparent approach to identify and pre-qualify companies interested in modular housing construction. Doing this will make choosing qualified builders easier and faster. I encourage interested companies who are able to help meet our rapid construction objectives to consider pre-qualifying. Our government will continue to take action and work closely with our partners at all levels of government to implement our ambitious plan to build more homes people can afford.”