2024 Central Ontario Housing Summit Brings Together All Government Levels to Speak to Addressing Housing Crisis

Today, the 2024 Central Ontario Housing Summit was held in Burlington, bringing together representatives from all levels of government and key private sector stakeholders to speak to addressing the housing crisis and increasing the housing supply together.The summit was hosted by the Ontario Home Builders’ Association in partnership with West-End Home Builders Association (WEHBA) and Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) Association. As Burlington's Mayor and Chair of the Ontario's Big City Mayors (OBCM) caucus, I joined MP Scott Aitchison, Shadow Minister for Housing, Conservative Party of Canada; the Hon. Rob Flack, Associate Minister of Housing; MP Chris Bittle, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities; and MPP Matthew Rae, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, as this year's Summit Keynote Speakers.The Summit also brought together policy-makers, builders, planners, architects, realtors, suppliers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders.I want to thank the OHBA, WEHBA and BILD for inviting me to speak at the summit and touch on how the City of Burlington is doing its part in seeing the housing supply increase faster -- and thank you to everyone who came out and engaged in this important conversation.For a copy of my presentation, please scroll down.Good afternoon everyone. My name is Marianne Meed Ward, the Mayor of Burlington, and current Chair of Ontario’s Big City Mayors and I am very excited to welcome to all here today!I’d like to thank WEHBA, BILD and OHBA for having me here today and providing me some time to talk with you all about how we are utilizing innovation and collaboration to build a better Burlington and reach our housing pledge of 29,000 homes by 2031.For those who are unfamiliar with our city, Burlington recently celebrated our 15o+ anniversary, we are half rural and half urban and was just recently named:

• Most livable city in the province, fifth overall in the entire country, by the Globe and Mail; and
• Top city for Gen Z by real estate website Point2Homes, a generation who prioritizes health, financial stability, and work/life balance, shifting their focus from big cities life to smaller urban gems.

But how do we ensure that Gen Z, the generations following, and even current residents can call Burlington home?It is no secret that we are in a housing crisis and the dream of home ownership is becoming increasingly out of reach for many of our population. I myself have three adult children living at home. Burlington is committed to reaching our housing target and enabling more homes.We are:

• Investing more than $2 million in the digitization of the building process;
• Have created a concierge service for high impact development files; and
• Committed to the acquisition and development of municipal land through the Burlington Lands Partnership, including for affordable housing.

We have:

• Unanimously approved 4 units as of right;
• Secured more than $21 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, that will enable hundreds of units over the next few years, and thousands of units over the next decade; and
• Secured $1 million for the Community Investment fund, including land acquisition.

So where are we now?At our March 2024 Pipeline to Permit Committee meeting, we received a good news update from planning staff that in less than a month, we’ve added 3,514 housing units to Burlington's overall development pipeline. As of Feb. 27, 2024, we have a total of 45,126 housing units in our pipeline.As for what we have under construction, and “foundations poured,” we’ve created 649 dwellings in 2023. Indeed we have local builders like Carriage Gate homes just reaching occupancy on Gallery Condos and Lofts – a brand new mixed-use building just down the street from us – launching the process of delivering 161 sets of keys to new home owners.And it’s not just Burlington who is committed to solving the housing crisisAs chair of the Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) caucus – representing Ontario cities with populations of 100,000 or more – I can tell you we are all focused on doing our part. All of our members have accepted the provincial housing pledge. We have been relentless in our advocacy for funding for critical infrastructure for our growing municipalities.We were happy that the provincial government heard our calls and announced last Thursday they are investing more than $1.8 billion in housing-enabling infrastructure funding, including $1 billion for the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and $625 million more for the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund.Funding for critical infrastructure including water and wastewater, roads and bridges is necessary if we are going to achieve our housing goals. But we are still in a housing crisis, and we know we all need to do more.That is why earlier this year, I introduced the Pipeline to Permit Standing Committee in the City of Burlington – an innovative and collaborative to enable housing and help builders get more shovels in the ground. The Committee brings together Council, the development industry, associations and citizens to identify and address gaps and opportunities.It is the first of its kind – no other municipality has this type of committee. I was overwhelmed at the caliber of talent that put their names forward to join this committee, many of whom are in the room today including BiLD and WEHBA.This is not just an advisory group, the Pipeline to Permit Committee has the ability to impact real change, including moving motions.And I’m happy to report at our last meeting, WEHBA CEO Mike Collins Williams successfully moved a motion for the City of Burlington to explore how to implement a Modern Pay-on-Demand Surety Bond program that Council unanimously supported. We know that in today’s tight economic conditions, every dollar counts and the industry has told us this will help unlock millions for reinvestment in housing.Working with the experts around the P2P committee is just the first step in reaching out housing targets. I want to collaborate with you all in this room.So how can you help?Bring your ideas to the Pipeline to Permit Committee:

• We are looking for innovation tools and solutions;
• Some of our upcoming topics include AI tools, tiny homes, ADUs, modular homes.

Work with us through the application process:

• The higher the quality of the application, the faster we can move through the process.

Continue to invest in the skilled trades:

• To build housing, we need workers, and our workers need housing. Burlington builders like Branthaven Homes continue to invest significantly in educating the next generation of our skilled labour;
• We also need the Ontario Home Builders’ Association to continue to champion smart labour policy reform like the recent (but long overdue) requirements that all job sites provide dedicated washrooms for women and properly fitted PPE as a step towards more equitable jobsites.

Help our residents see what’s in it for them by building complete communities:

• Understandably, there is a lot of concern about adding an additional 29,000 units to our city -- but, we do not want to just provide just housing units. We want to continue to be Ontario’s most livable city for decades to come and that means also building parks, community centres, retail, trails, centred around our Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs);
• And we are committed to learning from the industry on how to achieve this. As you can see on my slide here, in January 2024, we spent the day with Remington Group to learn from best practices of their downtown Markham development;
• We don’t want people to just live here, but also have a great quality of life.

And there is some incredible work being done in our city to ensure just that! Last month, council endorsed vision plans for the site of 1200 King Rd.This proposal from Alinea is centred around the Aldershot GO MTSA and calls for:

• mixed-tenure housing;
• a major community facility;
• trails and paths;
• parks;
• post-secondary teaching space;
• incubator/accelerator space; and
• close to South Service Road.

We are facing a crisis that cannot be solved alone. We need every single player in housing at the table, including the federal government, provincial government, municipalities, builders, and the not-for-profit sector.We need this type of dialogue to build great partnership like we have in the room here today.We want hear from the innovators and experts, and that is why I’m excited to launch A Better Burlington: Innovation to Action -- a dynamic speaker series aimed at inspiring positive change and practical solutions within our city through innovative approaches and tangible actions.Please save the date for the first session featuring keynote speaker Jennifer Keesmaat discussing housing, community development and growth. As many of you know, Jennifer is an urban planner passionate about creating places where people flourish.This will be a free event at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Monday, May 27 in the evening. Be sure to save the date and stay tuned to my channels for more details soon, including on how to register.Looking forward to seeing you there!