A bureaucracy is accused of hypocrisy at the OMB: city planning policy says that shadows by trees are good for human health, but shadows by a new 12 storey building will harm human health. CityPlanTO loses the case at OMB and springs into self preservation mode!

So what do they find in the report? I’d encourage you to read it yourselves, as it’s a great example of politically motivated idea laundering. Most of its citations are city policy, plus an uncited bibliography at the end. toronto.ca/wp-content/upl…

What is idea laundering? It’s when you use the public’s trust in institutions to slip untrue or misleading ideas into the mainstream. In this case, a very official sounding group is convened to issue propaganda and change the definitions of words so that the city looks good.

Once the report is published, city staff can now use it to argue for the negative health benefits of tall buildings forever, claiming expert input from this report. That’s how idea laundering works. Bullsh!t becomes knowledge, thanks to institutional sponsorship.

I find this stuff absolutely enraging. Like so many on this platform, I want to see Canada (and Canadians) succeed. I want to see Toronto thrive, the fabric of our communities improve, and the opportunities for all of us become more abundant and easier to grasp. That’s a

Very disappointed in today's committee result that reinforces the minority belief that having a neighbourhood convenience store or coffee shop is somehow an unimaginable blight on Toronto's residential character. (1/?)

1,798 purpose-built rental apartment units started construction in the GTHA during the third quarter, increasing 25% from a year ago. YTD total starts for rentals to 5,475 units — a 32% increase from the same period last year and the highest level since 2021. The 24,893

First-time homebuyers account for roughly 35 per cent of new home purchases, so cutting the sales taxes for them will help, Richard Lyall says in an article in Ontario Construction News at rescon.com/media/in-the-n…. #HousingCrisis Chase Construction News Mark Buckshon

Actions taken to get more young women into trades in #construction have had success but there’s more work to be done, noted speakers at RESCON’s recent Women in Construction event. Read the article in Daily Commercial News at canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/labou…. #womeninconstruction Richard Lyall

RESCON is pleased that #Budget2025 solidifies pledges and programs that the federal government announced earlier to spur new #housing #construction, especially the commitment to cut sales taxes. Read our press release at rescon.com/media/press-re…. #cdnpoli Richard Lyall

NEW: Weeks after Ontario’s finance minister offered first-time home buyers a new tax discount, Premier Doug Ford is doubting how effective the policy will be in reigniting the province’s sluggish housing construction sector. globalnews.ca/news/11529607/… #onpoli

A heads-up for everyone: We'll be releasing our next GTA and Greater Golden Horseshoe housing report card on Monday morning. It should turn some heads. Here's our previous one, in case you missed it: missingmiddleinitiative.ca/p/failing-grad…

Tripling non-market housing stock is doable ; it would need about 80K units a year for 2 decades, at an annual cost of $40B. It would also involve giving corporations $800B over 20 years in private-public partnerships. You don’t have to be Bernie Sanders to find that worrying.

Richard Lyall (Richard Lyall) Residential Construction Council of Ontario President, joins Greg Brady to talk about the job losses in the residential housing sector 🔊LISTEN LIVE: 640toronto.com

The dire state of new home starts and sales across municipalities in the #GTA and GGH is going to get worse before it gets better, states a new report done for RESCON. Press release at rescon.com/media/press-re…. Report at cms.rescon.com/media/PDFs/202…. #HousingCrisis Richard Lyall

The Big Take Away: We DONT have a condo collpase. Its an ALL new homes collpase, of every type. Ontario home buyers can no longer afford what it costs to build new homes. We have to get costs under control and do it yesterday. Thousands of jobs depend on this.

RESCON's December newsletter is hot off the press. Read the digital version at heyzine.com/flip-book/bcaf… or the PDF at cms.rescon.com/media/Newslett…. #HousingCrisis #cdnpoli #onpoli Richard Lyall

To spur residential #construction, governments must do something they’re not used to doing - and that is reduce the #tax burden on new housing, Richard Lyall explains in a column in CFIMag at canadiancontractor.ca/features/the-n…. #HousingCrisis

Vaughan Chamber Hear from: Prabmeet Sarkaria Andrea Khanjin Steven Del Duca GTA Sewer & Watermain Contractors Association TARBA Stephanie Bellotto Richard Lyall and more! 🎟️ If you haven’t already, get your tickets: f.mtr.cool/lavbbbruzt

This is really wonderful to see! CMHC is now releasing data on development charges across Canada. Must read piece. cmhc-schl.gc.ca/observer/2025/…