Last week, Premier Doug Ford announced at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference that the Ontario government is investing an additional $1.6 billion to speed up construction on homes and critical infrastructure.
The announcement nearly doubles the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program (MHIP) to $4 billion, on top of the province’s most recent $400 million increase in the 2025 provincial budget, and gives municipalities and Indigenous communities more resources to build roads, bridges, and water systems that make new housing possible.
“We’re making record investments in housing and infrastructure so we can keep workers on the job and help families across the province find a home that meets their needs and their budgets,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Working with our municipal partners, we’re going to keep lowering costs, investing in infrastructure and cutting red tape so we can keep the dream of homeownership alive in Ontario.”
According to the Ontario government, since its launch in 2024, the MHIP has enabled the construction of 800,000 homes across the province. In conjunction with the province’s $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund, which rewards municipalities that meet and exceed their housing targets, these investments give communities the resources they need to keep delivering results.
“This additional $1.6 billion investment in the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program will help communities across Ontario build the infrastructure they need to unlock more housing and support economic growth,” said Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure. “In the face of unwarranted U.S. tariffs, our government is doubling down on our plan to build and investing more than $200 billion through our capital plan to protect Ontario by getting shovels in the ground faster on the projects that matter most.”
“Investments in municipal infrastructure have consistently proven to be the best way to protect local, provincial and national economies,” said Robin Jones, AMO President and Mayor of Westport. “These investments will not just help to build homes, they will provide thousands of jobs in communities across the province and lay the foundation for long-term productivity. We commend Premier Ford for these important investments.”
According to the Smart Prosperity Institute, Ontario needs about 1.5 million new homes over the next decade to meet demand. This number includes addressing a current shortage of approximately 471,500 homes while accommodating future population growth.
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One thing that should be considered to kickstart housing is allowing the Provincial Sales tax to be claimed as a legitimate income tax deduction for all of those who make less than $100,000 in taxable income !
Making the construction of homes possible is great. But no one can afford the houses sonit isn’t helping actual new home starts which are way down.
Residential construction is to a point now that the trades are having to lower their costs exponentially just to try and retain contracts while the builders don’t lower the overall cost for buyers.
Sites are sitting with little to no work happening on them, and a lot of what’s going up is inventory. For example, on one site, we just built 3 blocks of townhouses and only 5 unit of 17 are sold. On another site, we’ve built 14 detached homes since January 2024 and only 2 have sold.
The lack of building starts has put so many trades out of work that the bidding wars for projects that do come up are insane. Companies are forced to take 3 to 9000$ cuts per unit and that all gets passed on to the people actually on site working. Up unitl 2023-2023 someone in my field working hard every day could bring in 10,000$ a month before expenses. This year due to lack of work, that has been slashed to 4 or 5000$, a huge cut.
Workers are going broke while builders are refusing to lower prices. That’s the issue. Not red tape or municipal backlogs. It all worked fine before. The issue is greed and high profit margins. Until builders themselves decide to lower prices, the housing crisis isn’t going anywhere.
Top that off with the upcoming minimum wage increase and you’ll see jobless rates among the trades rise further. If we’re already struggling, donyou really think we can afford to keep the low guy on the ladder around? Not a chance unfortunately.
Raising wages to meet the rising cost of living is only going to raise the cost of living. It’s a vicious circle.