On February 27, Ontarians will flock to voting booths across the province to cast their vote on who should be the next premier. Top of mind will be issues like taxes, transportation, healthcare, and other social infrastructure, but arguably the most pressing issue will be housing.
With the average cost of a house well out of reach for many who call Ontario home, rents still lingering at historic highs despite recent easing and a host of other forces driving the lack of affordability, such as high development charges, restrictive zoning, and labour shortages, its an issue many hope to see resolved in the near future. In fact, a recent survey from Rentals.ca found 84% of Ontarians said affordability has worsened in the last five years, with the largest share (19%) blaming inflation and economic instability, followed by 15% pointing to lack of housing supply, and 14% citing government policies and inaction.
According to results from another survey from Royal LePage, this election symbolizes an oppourtunity for change for many who live in the province. 69% of Ontarians say a party’s stance on the housing crisis will influence their vote, while 38% said they would consider relocating within Ontario for more affordable housing, and 20% would consider a move outside the province.
Campaigning on a range of solutions to this pressing issue are leaders from the provinces four main political parties: The Conservative Progressives (PCs), the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Green Party. Current Premier and head of a majority PC government Doug Ford is currently leading in the polls with 46% of support, followed by Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie at 25%, NDP Leader Marit Stiles at 21%, and the Green Party's Mike Schreiner at 8%, according to the latest poll from Ipsos.
Here's where each party leader stands on housing:
Doug Ford — PC
If you're curious how Ford has performed on the hosing file for the last seven-ish years, read more here.
In the past, the Premier has been criticized for mixed messaging surrounding housing: advocating for cutting red tape but refusing to allow as-of-right multi-unit housing province-wide and instead cutting into the Greenbelt after promising not to, making substantial development charge reforms and then repealing them in the face of municipal backlash, and creating the Housing Affordability Task Force and then not following the majority of its recommendations.
Looking at how Ford has proposed to tackle the housing crisis moving forward, however, the Premier recently released his 2025 platform "Protect Ontario," which has one subsection on housing titled "Reducing Red Tape And Barriers To Building." In this section there is one bullet point on housing that focuses on "Building homes faster" by standardizing development study requirements across the province, developing a province-wide tool to accelerate land use planning and Building Code permit approvals.
Ford also pledges his government will work with "housing-forward" municipalities to lower development charges, including leveraging the existing Building Faster Fund, which rewards municipalities for meeting or exceeding housing targets, and he pledges to ensure development charges are invested transparently by municipalities.
Additionally, the PCs say they will allocate $1 billion in additional funds to the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which provides funding for core infrastructure projects, such as roads and water systems, plus another $1 billion will go to the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, which is meant to provide funding for water infrastructure projects to protect communities and build more housing.
Full housing plan can be read here.
Bonnie Crombie — Liberal
Crombie's housing plan More Homes You Can Afford will cost $3.6 billion and will be paid for by consolidating what her platform calls "haphazardly developed" housing funds, including the Building Ontario Fund.
On her platform, she pledges to make homeownership more affordable by eliminating the Ontario Land Transfer Tax for first-time homebuyers, seniors downsizing, and non-profit homebuilders, getting rid of development charges on new family-sized housing, and implementing the Better Communities Fund to help municipalities cover infrastructure costs.
Crombie's government would also improve conditions for renters by introducing phased-in rent control, reducing building costs for co-op and rental apartments, establishing the Rental Emergency Support for Tenants (REST) Fund, and clearing the 53,000-case backlog at the Landlord-Tenant Board as well as reducing dispute timelines to under two months.
The Liberals also plan to implement all recommendations of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force within two years of the election, including things like allowing as-of-right fourplexes on residential lots across the province and setting provincial standards and/or prohibitions for angular planes, setbacks, minimum parking requirements, stepbacks, and other local rules that prevent building more homes.
Full housing plan can be read here.
Marit Stiles — NDP
Mike Schreiner — Green Party
The Green Party's plan, Housing NOW, aims to build 2 million homes in a "variety of innovative forms" within urban boundaries over the next 10 years.
To accomplish this, Schreiner's party has proposed similar policies to the Liberals and NDPs, such as eliminating development charges on most home types, scrapping the Land Transfer Tax for first-time home buyers, and allowing as-of-right fourplexes province-wide, with the Greens adding that sixplexes should also receive as-of-right zoning in cities with populations over 500,000.
On top of that, Schreiner's government has pledged things like implementing a multiple property speculation tax on those who purchase more than two houses in Ontario, building 250,000 new affordable non profit and co-op homes and 60,000 permanent supportive homes, bringing back rent and vacancy control, and resuming the homelessness census cancelled by the Ford government.
The Greens are also big on reversing recent boundary expansions by the Ford government into greenfields and reversing Ford's changes to the Provincial Planning Statement that encourage sprawl.
Full housing plan can be read here.
