Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to expand mayoral powers to cities other than Toronto and Ottawa in order to get more housing units built..The Strong Mayors Building Homes Act will provide Toronto and Ottawa with the additional tools needed to advance provincial priorities. Building more homes is at the top of the list," Ford said on Monday. .“In the coming months, we’ll have more information on how these tools will be expanded to other municipalities so more municipal leaders like yourselves can help build Ontario,” he said..Speaking Monday at the Association of Municipalities Ontario annual conference in Ottawa, Ford said the province is facing a housing crisis "decades in the making." He blamed previous governments for failing to build more housing units, resulting in the dream of home ownership "slipping away from a generation of Canadians.".In early 2022, Ontario's Housing Affordability Task Force released a report calling for 1.5 million new homes to be built in the next ten years. Ford's Progressive Conservatives made the task force's housing recommendation into a core campaign promise..Last week, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark introduced legislation giving mayors of Ontario's two largest cities veto powers over bylaws that could "potentially interfere with a prescribed provincial priority." These include areas such as housing, roads, and public transit..The legislation would allow the mayors to override council approval of a bylaw, such as a zoning bylaw, that would hamper a set of provincial priorities that will be set out later in regulations..The mayors would have authority over municipal budgets and the hiring and firing of senior city staff..Ford said Ontario saw construction begin on more than 100,000 new homes, which is the highest level since 1987. "But that is just the beginning," he said..“The real solution to the housing crisis is to increase supply, full stop. And together, we can get more shovels in the ground with an ‘all hands-on deck’ effort from all levels of government to build more attainable homes," he said..Ontario NDP Interim leader Peter Tabuns, who is addressing AMO delegates later Monday, has previously said Ford’s proposed legislation “doesn’t make sense.”.“Whether it’s a vanity project on the part of the premier or something to do with making sure developer friends have friendly councils that are controlled by a strong mayor, I don’t know,” Tabuns said..Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the provincial government already has many tools at its disposal to increase housing supply in cities without increasing sprawl, "and without concentrating power at the top of municipal government.”.Mike Moffatt, senior director of Policy and Innovation at Smart Prosperity Institute, said it is "unclear" how the new powers will help new homes get built.."The proposal assumes that mayors are trying to build more housing, but are getting blocked by councillors and city staff. It's not clear that's the case, and it's easy to imagine a mayor trying to use these powers to slow housing growth, rather than accelerate it.”
