Ontario Plans To Get A Special Task Force That Will Look To Make Housing More Affordable

Ontario plans to get a Housing Affordability Task Force to help make housing more attainable for people as prices continue to increase.

In the fall economic statement, Ontario announced a proposal "to establish a Housing Affordability Task Force to provide recommendations to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on potential further actions to make housing more affordable for Ontario families."

In 2020, $25.6 billion was invested in Ontario for new housing, and 2021 has seen a 49% increase in spending in the "equivalent period" according to the fall economic statement as part of Ontario's Housing Supply Action Plan.

The director of communications for Steve Clark, municipal affairs and housing minister, told Narcity that the task force will "explore measures to support market housing supply and affordability, and provide the government with strategies and advice to continue to address Ontario's housing crisis."

"Our government's policies under the Housing Supply Action Plan are working to increase supply and make it easier for Ontarians to find the right home for them: in 2020, the year after our Housing Supply Action Plan was implemented, Ontario had the highest level of housing starts in a decade and the highest level of rental starts since 1992," read the emailed statement.

"But we know there is still more to do, which is why we are creating a Housing Affordability Task Force to identify more opportunities to get shovels in the ground faster, remove duplication and barriers, and make housing more affordable for hardworking Ontarians."

Ontario's Housing Supply Action Plan, which was introduced in 2019, will be "fully implemented by 2022," and the government plans to make "additional improvements to the land-use planning system" and enhance the Brownfields Financial Tax Incentive, according to the fall economic statement.