Vaughan, Dec. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) is pleased that Toronto Mayor John Tory is calling for a 2023 Housing Action Plan to be developed that will enable the city to meet or exceed the provincial target of building 285,000 new homes over the next 10 years.
“RESCON applauds without reservation Toronto Mayor John Tory and Planning and Housing Committee Chair Coun. Brad Bradford as they advance meaningful and measurable solutions to the city’s housing affordability and supply crisis with their 2023 Housing Action Plan,” said RESCON president Richard Lyall.
The new plan introduces a broad range of initiatives that will substantially advance crucial policy changes that will deliver much-needed housing for current and new residents of Toronto. Significantly, the plan directly commits to either meet or exceed housing targets identified by the provincial government over the next 10 years for the City of Toronto.
“The commitment to meet or exceed provincial housing targets as a result of Toronto’s new Housing Action Plan is a once-in-a-generation change to housing policy that RESCON fully supports, endorses and will assist the city in every way possible to deliver upon,” Lyall continued.
RESCON is enormously encouraged by the commitments to change zoning policies to prioritize housing construction, increase zoning permissions on major streets, create transition zones between commercial and potential residential areas, expand permissions for multiplexes and additional housing forms, remove exclusionary zoning restrictions along with myriad provisions specifically designed to escalate significantly residential housing construction.
“The scale of the changes proposed by the 2023 Housing Action Plan are so extensive that they are precisely the character of initiatives that RESCON has been calling for in order to address the housing affordability and supply crisis,” Lyall noted.
The plan also includes meaningful and necessary public accountability tools, including dashboards which will track outcomes and goals. The implementation of a regulatory framework for multi-tenant housing is an unprecedented step forward and will address serious and prevailing equity issues for many vulnerable residents of the city, including students who have been forced to reside in unacceptable conditions due to the housing crisis.
“The mayor’s commitments to outcome management, transparency and in particular the delivery of a multi-tenant housing regulatory and enforcement framework are a massive step forward in protecting so many of our most vulnerable residents,” Lyall stated.
RESCON unreservedly supports both Mayor John Tory and the city’s outstanding new Chair of the Planning and Housing Committee, Coun. Bradford, as they move forward with some of the most significant changes to planning and development policies Toronto has ever seen. We encourage all councillors to support the 2023 Housing Action Plan.
“Mayor Tory and councillor Bradford are demonstrating the kind of leadership and commitment that is absolutely necessary to address the housing crisis and we encourage all councillors and housing stakeholders to support their challenging and outstanding work on this issue,” Lyall concluded.
RESCON is the province’s leading association of residential builders committed to providing leadership and fostering innovation in the industry.
