Burlington again has one of the lowest rates of home building in Ontario
Published April 12, 2024 at 5:31 pm
The most recent data released by the Ontario government shows that Burlington again sits near the bottom of the list for home building.
Released yesterday (April 11), the new information reveals Burlington has only reached 1 per cent of its goal so far this year.
Based on its pledge to build more homes, Burlington has only achieved 27 housing starts in its march to get to 2,417 units by the end of 2024.
While other towns and cities in Ontario have been able to cash in on their housing programs, Burlington’s failure has cost the City millions of dollars in grant money that Queen’s Park has been doling out to municipalities that have been able to reach their targets.
By comparison, neighbouring Oakville has already reached 38 per cent of its building target this year. Other places that are doing well include Pickering (55 per cent), Sarnia (77 per cent) and Belleville (32 per cent).
Municipalities joining Burlington at the bottom of the list at 0 per cent are Woodstock, North Bay, and Haldimand County. Aurora, Richmond Hill and Waterloo are at 1 per cent of achieving set housing goals.
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The measuring tool used to track home building in Ontario — housing starts — has been criticized by local politicians in the province because it only counts housing units that have been started and not those approved, currently under construction, or completed.
Burlington Mayor Marianne Marianne Meed Ward has repeatedly pointed out that the system penalizes municipalities for circumstances beyond their control.
She says projects are being approved but developers are not building them.
Up-to-date Burlington data shows that 23,308 housing units are in the pre-development application phase, while another 21,504 are “in the system” and on their way to meeting building approvals.
“The approval process sits with the municipality. We don’t build houses, we don’t pour foundations (housing starts), that’s on the development industry,” the mayor has said.
Still, the Province is sticking with its guidelines which means Burlington will continue to miss out on additional funding that could go towards building local infrastructure.
Last year Premier Doug Ford called out Burlington on its building performance calling it “unacceptable” and saying that the City had to do more to get homes built.
Burlington has pledged to build 29,000 new housing units by 2031 but so far has only 739 housing units to its credit since 2022 based on the criteria set out by the Provincial government.
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