Guelph mayor hopeful new housing bill will help with housing crisis

The mayor of Guelph is opening up about the Ontario government’s new housing bill.

Cam Guthrie, the mayor of Guelph, said the legislation could have more certainty and clarity in regard to timelines as the announcement comes with some big changes for developers.

“Many municipalities, like Guelph, know that there’s developers ready to go with applications to actually look to build the type of housing that might be impacted by no parking minimums,” said Guthrie. “They’re not going to submit those applications now, because they would need to know what the outcome is on that piece of legislation.”

The bill, titled Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, was introduced on Wednesday. Some of the big changes include a “use it or lose it” policy for lands, removing parking minimums near transit stations and giving universities more planning authority on student housing.

Guthrie said about 50 per cent of what was tabled in the new housing bill looks actionable now, while the rest looks like more consultation will be needed before being implemented.

“In a housing crisis that is consistently getting worse, we cannot take a lot of time for this protracted and elongated constant engagement and consultation that can take months,” said Guthrie.

He added that the removal of some third party appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal is a game changer and it will help more homes be built if third parties can’t “skirt” around what municipalities want.

“To have third parties swoop in and make appeals sometimes that are extremely frivolous and then it goes to the Ontario Land Tribunal for months or even over a year, that is not helpful to get shovels into the ground,” said Guthrie.

Guelph was awarded over $4 million in funding in 2023 after making substantial progress towards the cities housing target.

Premier Doug Ford is set to appear in Kitchener on Thursday with Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic to give an update on housing target numbers.