“Supply, supply, supply.”
If you’ve spent any time in the world of Canadian housing policy—or if you’ve even just watched the evening news—you’ve probably heard that phrase tossed around as the magic bullet to solve our housing crisis. But here’s the real question: If we all agree that we need more homes, why can’t we just build them?
The truth is, building homes in Ontario is like trying to sprint through molasses—every step forward is met with red tape, delays, rising costs, and regulatory hoops that turn even the simplest project into a years-long ordeal.
Allow me to pull back the curtain:
Land Doesn’t Become Housing Overnight
Speed is Supply—And We’re Losing That Race
Delays Aren’t Just Inconvenient—They’re Expensive
It’s Not Just Approval Delays—It’s Also the Fees
The Price of Perfection: We Plan Ourselves into Paralysis
Land Doesn’t Become Housing Overnight
Imagine you find a piece of land that’s already designated for residential development. You might think, “Great, I’ll have homes built here in a year or two.”
Wrong.
In Ontario, even if land is zoned properly and fits the city’s official plan, it can take 5 to 7 years before someone actually moves into a home on that land. That’s not an exaggeration—it’s standard operating procedure. The approval process alone can take twice as long as actual construction.
And the numbers prove it. Want to build in Mississauga? Expect 25 months for approval. Richmond Hill? Try 34 months. Even smaller cities like Whitby or Brampton are clocking in at over a year for approvals. In contrast, Edmonton approves developments in just 3.4 months—yes, you read that right.
Speed is Supply—And We’re Losing That Race
Here’s the kicker: actual construction is the fast part. Once you’ve got your permits, materials, and financing, crews can build a home in less time than it takes for city hall to schedule your zoning meeting.
The CEO of Mattamy Homes Canada commented: Ontario is the hardest jurisdiction in North America to build housing. High fees, long timelines, and byzantine regulatory layers have turned what should be a streamlined process into a bureaucratic marathon.
Delays Aren’t Just Inconvenient—They’re Expensive
Time is money in real estate. Every month of delay adds thousands of dollars in costs—staff wages, consultants, lawyers, interest on financing, and more. For nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, those extra costs can literally mean fewer homes built for families in need.
How bad is it? Some developers report that $2,700 to $5,700 in costs are added per unit every month a project is delayed. Multiply that across hundreds of units and you can see how the math becomes unsustainable.
It’s Not Just Approval Delays—It’s Also the Fees
Development charges (DCs) were meant to make “growth pay for growth.” That’s fair. But today, DCs have ballooned into a major cost driver. In Toronto, the DCs for a single-family home can hit $180,000. In Ottawa, you’re looking at $40,000 to $65,000 per unit. Some condos in the GTA are burdened with $250,000 in government-related charges—before a single shovel hits the ground.
And here’s where it gets even more frustrating: many of these fees fund things that have little to do with new homes. Olympic-sized swimming pools? Interest payments on transit systems that were already running? These costs get pushed onto the shoulders of today’s homebuyers, who weren’t around when those decisions were made.
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
You’d think with the housing crisis dominating headlines, governments would be working together. Not quite. Developers often deal with four levels of government—municipal, regional, provincial, and federal—all with their own rules, timelines, and often conflicting priorities.
One builder shared a story where, after jumping through every hoop at the local level, an upper-tier government department rejected the design due to fire truck access. The fix? Move the building. But then, the conservation authority got involved—because now the building was too close to protected lands.
Round and round we go.
The Price of Perfection: We Plan Ourselves into Paralysis
Let’s be clear: planning and environmental stewardship matter. But what we’ve created is a system where every interest—except housing—gets front-row priority. Transit, parks, heritage, traffic, environmental impact, architectural guidelines, neighbourhood character… all must be considered before we think about actual homes.
The result? Housing becomes whatever leftover sliver we can squeeze into the map—and that’s not how you solve a crisis.
And Then There’s NIMBYism
Ah, NIMBY: “Not In My Backyard.” It’s a powerful force in local politics. Even modest density—like a duplex or a fourplex—often gets shot down because existing homeowners worry about their property values, parking, or simply “neighbourhood character.”
Municipal councillors are stuck in the middle. It’s easier to listen to the loud voices that already vote than to advocate for future residents who don’t yet live in the riding. As one expert put it: “Our whole system is designed to amplify the voice of the homeowner, not the home seeker.”
So, What Do We Do?
There is a way out—but it requires political courage, regulatory reform, and bold partnership between the private and public sectors. Here’s what needs to happen:
- Fast-track approvals for housing that meets affordability and density goals
- Cut unnecessary fees and streamline development charges so new buyers aren’t footing the bill for yesterday’s projects
- Coordinate between levels of government, ensuring complementary—not conflicting—policies
- Support innovative financing, like community district development bonds, so infrastructure costs are shared over time
- Unclog the pipeline by reducing regulatory bloat and redundant studies
- Champion the right type of supply—family-sized, mid-market, and affordable homes, not just micro condos
The Bottom Line
Ontario doesn’t have a demand problem. It has a systems problem.
People want homes. Builders want to build. Nonprofits want to help. But when approvals take years, costs keep rising, and bureaucracy multiplies, we all pay the price—literally.
It’s time to stop treating housing as a luxury or an afterthought. In a crisis, housing can’t be what’s left over after every other issue is dealt with. It has to be the priority.
And if we get it right? That 90-year-old neighbour might finally have somewhere to downsize to. And her home? It just might become a young family’s first step onto the property ladder.
