Ontario has teamed up with the federal government to make building new homes more affordable and boost housing availability across Canada.
On Monday morning in Etobicoke, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford shared that development charges (DCs) for new homes will be slashed by as much as 50 per cent over the next three years.
Carney mentioned that halving development charges could save homeowners around $40,000 when purchasing new properties.
The Prime Minister also announced a 13 per cent cut to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for all new homes, stating that combined reductions in development charges and HST could lead to savings of up to $200,000 for buyers.
“It’s a partnership that leverages our different capacities, our different jurisdictional responsibilities to achieve the same goals. More homes, lower housing costs, tens of thousands of new careers in the skilled trades,” Prime Minister Carney said. “In recent years, they’ve been growing at an unsustainable rate [development charges], increasing the cost of every new home, compressing margins for builders, and they’ve been stalling new builds, stalling new construction.”
Premier Ford described this joint initiative as “historic” and cautioned municipalities that they won’t receive provincial housing funds if they don’t agree to halve their development charges.
“Funding will be prioritized for municipalities that agree to cut DCs by up to 50 per cent, as well as municipalities that have already lowered DCs in recent months. If you don’t cut DCs, you aren’t getting any money,” said Premier Ford.
This agreement aims to provide a total of $8.8 billion over ten years to help offset much of the financial impact caused by reduced development charges on municipalities.
Development charges are significant upfront infrastructure expenses that can delay or block new housing developments.
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