Thank you very much.
Those of us on the front lines of building new housing supply are challenged by the regulatory constraints that treat housing like it is a negative to be mitigated. In the absence of sufficient supply, we know there are all kinds of wonky outcomes in Canadian society. Young people are leaving communities where they were raised, unable to imagine their futures. Newcomers are becoming trapped, unable to access the middle class and the opportunity and stability that drew them to Canada in the first place. We know that anti-immigration sentiment then grows, as a scarcity mentality driven by fear takes root.
Housing insecurity has become a defining feature of Canadian life. The well housed worry about interest rates and property taxes. Insecure about the future, they worry about the future of their children and grandchildren. Those well employed worry about being laid off and its impact on paying a mortgage or paying the rent.
Then, too, there are the vulnerable among us. As an example, domestic violence against women is declared an epidemic in Toronto and elsewhere, yet women and children, unable to access stable housing, stay with their abusers.
I am a founder, owner, president and CEO of Collecdev-Markee. We have over 8,000 homes in the development pipeline in the GTA—mostly rental. We are a self-performing construction company. We build in walkable, urban locations close to schools, parks and transit. We prioritize maximizing affordable housing and accessibility. We have homes under construction and at every stage, and we partner with organizations to deliver complete communities that integrate day cares, community spaces and recreation facilities.
Since April 1, we have handed over 120 keys to new homeowners in a 427-home, 12-storey building on Wilson Avenue, steps from the subway. This morning, we finalized the acquisition of two sites for a 62-unit, missing-middle building. Construction will begin this year.
In September, we begin site work on a 1,500-home development, which is an infill project in our suburbs, known as Tyndale Green. This development will benefit from an injection of incentives from the Toronto housing secretariat—from Abby Bond, who you just heard. She administered that program, which enables the building of hundreds of new affordable homes.
We have just recently partnered with Toronto to develop 456 new homes on city-owned land, 30% of which will be affordable, because of a remarkable partnership with CreateTO, which is the development arm of the city. This development, in particular, will benefit from HST forgiveness. The HST forgiveness incentivized us to transition from a condo development to a purpose-built rental one. It enables the inclusion of deeply affordable homes.
There are three key points I'd like to make. We need to stop regulating housing like it is something that we do not want. This problem is both old and it's new. When I was chief planner in the City of Toronto from 2012 to 2018, we approved a remarkable, record amount of housing, 86% of which was approved in just 18 months or less. Today, the bureaucracy has swelled, adding nearly a third more, and approval times have slowed. At last count, 16% of developments were approved in 18 months or less. This is a recent problem.
There are three things I want to highlight.
Government fees are undermining the deliverability of new housing. Housing-specific fees and taxes are harming the viability of housing and worsening this crisis. In some municipalities, government fees are a quarter or more of the overall development cost. Just last week, as hundreds of new housing developments are put on hold due to high costs, multiple municipalities across the country increased development charges, including Toronto, with a 42% increase that was planned in very different market conditions.
The second key point I would like to make is that infrastructure costs should not be layered on to the cost of new homes. For years, the concept of “growth pays for growth” through taxation vehicles such as development charges has been commonplace and, for some time, the market could withstand these costs. Today, this is no longer true. In Ontario, the idea of a municipal infrastructure fund to replace development charges has been proposed and floated. This is a solid idea that is worthy of exploration.
Lastly, governments should do the thing they can do now, which is to use their own land. Unlocking land is at the root of new housing development. The federal government should incentivize other levels of government to unlock their lands and, at the same time, lead by example by expediting partnerships to build homes on government land, not unlike the CreateTO example I highlighted earlier.
The problem is solvable. We need to think about housing differently and act creatively. We can begin by getting regulatory constraints and high government fees out of the way and by using government land to deliver more housing everywhere.
Thank you.