RESCON pre-budget submission outlines actions to boost housing supply
The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) is calling on the provincial government to take action on a number of fronts in an effort to boost Ontario’s housing supply.
In its pre-budget submission letter to Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, the council calls on the province to enact three initiatives: modernize the residential-development approvals process, boost pathways into the skilled trades, and rein in municipalities that have independently put in place their own technical construction standards.
“The government has taken a number of legislative steps to help tackle the housing affordability and supply crisis and we are grateful for that, but many challenges still remain that must be addressed,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “While there are no instant solutions to these issues, we must start by taking action to streamline the system to enable the build of new housing.”
RESCON maintains that further action is necessary with the province in desperate need of housing supply and lagging in terms of innovation and the length of time it takes to get projects approved.
Specifically, RESCON wants the province to support One Ontario, an electronic development approval and building permit platform that would standardize procedures and eliminate redundancies. Many municipalities still rely on paper-based submissions and cumbersome review processes to approve developments. The process could be sped up significantly through One Ontario.
In October, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation funded a pilot project to implement One Ontario in Simcoe County. RESCON wants the province to match the funding so the pilot can be expanded to other regions.
The submission also recommends greater support for training and apprenticeship initiatives that will expand and fund pathways into the residential skilled trades.
While the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (ONIP) is set to be expanded, RESCON wants it amended to make it easier for immigrants with international experience and specialized skill sets required to build houses and related infrastructure to come to Ontario.
Specifically, it is requesting that the province double the number of seats allocated towards the Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills stream and the NOC C Pilot, and allocate 1,000 of 9,000 seats within the OINP for general labourers who can self-attest to having construction skill sets, have verifiable work experience, and have secured sponsorship.
RESCON is also recommending that the Ministry of Immigration, Labour, Training and Skills Development create an apprenticeship training recognition program for skilled trades employers in which strong hiring, onboarding, mentoring and training and retaining strategies are in place to support employees.
Finally, RESCON is also calling for greater provincial oversight on technical building requirements, as numerous municipalities have acted independently and mandated their own unique rules and are not planning to conform with the increasingly harmonized requirements of the Ontario and national building codes.
The process of harmonizing construction requirements across Canada is being jeopardized by municipal jurisdictions that have implemented their own unique technical requirements.
“These are key issues that need to be addressed in order to meet the increasing demand for housing in Ontario,” says Lyall. “Ontario is in dire need of housing, yet we have the lowest supply amongst G7 countries. We also need to attract more workers to our industry as nearly one quarter of the construction workforce in the GTA is set to retire by 2030. Thousands more workers will be needed, so we must bring in more immigrants with the skills necessary to build housing and infrastructure.”