Poll Companion: What Ontario Parties Are Saying On Housing This Election

With an incumbent already conceding defeat and two starkly opposed front-runners, an uncertain Ontario heads to provincial polls this Thurs June 7. Here's a summary of the main housing positions on offer.

Note: Select major political party platform details related to housing shown in alphabetical order for informational purposes only and should not be considered complete or up to date. Visit Elections Ontario for official information on the 2018 Ontario Elections (including a full list of registered political parties, candidates and links to official party websites).

New Democratic Party of Ontario

From official website: https://www.ontariondp.ca/

• implement a new annual speculation tax, based on British Columbia’s Speculation Tax, that will apply in the regions where the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) applies on foreign and domestic speculators who do not pay tax in Ontario

• protect homebuyers from shoddy construction and unfair financial risk by reforming the Tarion Warranty Corporation

• encourage an array of options for housing including mid-rises, townhouses and stacked townhouses that sell for dramatically less than the cost of a detached home by requiring a minimum density in developments along new transit lines, letting municipalities opt out of some minimum parking requirements, and requiring coordinated planning of retail and housing in medium-density developments

• work with municipalities to create a new Residents’ Rights Act so homeowners can add legal apartments, laneway houses and “granny flats” to their properties

• make rentals more affordable including introducing:
  • effective, reasonable, predictable rent controls that limit the use of above guideline increases to “renovict” people from their homes
  • a rent registry, so tenants can know how much a landlord has charged in the past

• build 65,000 new affordable homes by signing on to the federal National Housing Strategy, which will fund the construction of about 20,000 units, including non-profit and co-op housing, and make additional investments to build the remaining 45,000 units

• overhaul the government’s inclusionary zoning regulations to require more affordable homes in new housing developments and apply requirements to rental properties

• fund the province’s one-third share of repairing social housing across Ontario, with the municipal and federal governments contributing their one-third shares as well

Ontario Liberal Party 

From official website: https://ontarioliberal.ca//

• continue to implement the Fair Housing Plan introduced by the Ontario Liberal government which includes:
  • extending rent controls to all private rental units
  • establishing a standard lease for rental housing
  • implementing a Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) (of 15%) to cool down the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region (GGHR) housing market 
  • boosting the supply of rental and non-rental housing by improving the approvals processes and providing incentives to build new supply
  • providing public land to build new affordable and rental housing in Toronto and Hamilton

• grow the Greenbelt, which permanently protects over 810,000 hectares of green space, farmland, vibrant communities, forests, wetlands and watersheds, into proposed areas such as the Waterloo and Paris/Galt moraine complex, the Orangeville Moraine, the Oro Moraine, the Nottawasaga River corridor and additional catchment areas, wetlands and small moraines in Dufferin and Simcoe counties

• undertake a review of the LTB and Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) to ensure that renters are properly protected and once the review is complete, take action to improve the system

• tighten rules to prevent unfair “renovictions” and curb the use of inappropriate above-guideline rent increases due to capital repairs

• prohibit above-guideline rent increases in buildings with outstanding work orders related to pest control

• work with developers, municipalities and other stakeholders to enable small-scale residential intensification that would allow homeowners to build multi-unit projects on their land

• urge the federal government to address the inequitable tax treatment of rental construction compared to condo development

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario 

From official website: https://www.ontariopc.ca/

• increase the supply of affordable housing across the GTA while protecting the Greenbelt in its entirety

• maintain status quo on rent control