The end result is that projects get delayed or cancelled.

Ever wonder why housing starts have declined in Ontario three years in a row?

Curious as to why Paul Calandra is counting long-term care beds and student dorms as homes all of the sudden?

Here’s your answer.

🧵 (5/17)

When a new housing bill comes out every few months contradicting the one before it, you get an environment of unpredictability that is toxic to the homebuilding process.

Projects that made financial sense in 2023 no longer do in 2024.

🧵 (6/17)

A prime example of this is Doug Ford and Paul Calandra’s new housing bill, Bill 185.

It’s a massive departure from previous legislation, walking back and reversing several key policies from the last two years.

🧵 (7/17)

In late 2022, then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark passed Bill 23.

It introduced a five-year phase-in period for increased development charges.

Municipalities had to gradually increase development charges over five years instead of at once.

🧵 (8/17)

Whether you agree or disagree with this policy, it’s the one Doug Ford told municipalities and homebuilders to prepare for and abide by.

So, they did.

Over a year and a half of planning ensued with the whole housing sector adapting to the five-year phase-in period.

🧵 (9/17)

Doug Ford may not do much math, but homebuilders do.

They calculated the costs of their projects with this five-year phase-in period in mind.

Then Bill 185 came along, eliminated the five-year phase-in period of increased development charges, and undid all of that.

🧵 (10/17)

Suddenly, thousands of projects no longer pencil.

They’re compromised because the math doesn’t add up anymore.

Homebuilders planned for certain costs, and now those costs are going to higher.

But who ends up bearing the burden of those rising costs?

🧵 (11/17)

It’s not developers, and it’s not municipalities.

It’s you—the homebuyer or renter.

It’s the young family whose “forever home” just became $20,000 more expensive.

It’s the nurse or the mechanic who now has to pay $500 more per month in rent.

🧵 (12/17)

It’s the older adult who, in their later years, can’t find a unit they can downsize to because there simply aren’t enough to go around;

The PSW who sleeps in a shelter, the gig worker who sleeps in their car;

The thousands of people who sleep on the streets.

🧵 (13/17)

When I was young, I was excited to save up and put a down payment on a house.

I had hope.

Under Doug Ford, young people have lost that hope.

It’s truly sad to watch.

🧵 (14/17)

The Ford government will never reach its housing targets.

If they say they will—stop believing them.

All they are capable of are flip-flops, walk-backs, and reversals.

They are quite literally too incompetent not to create chaos in the housing sector.

🧵 (15/17)