Tory to use strong mayor powers to create new division for housing development

Newly re-elected John Tory says he is pushing forward with an election promise to build more housing in Toronto, and adds he won’t hesitate to use his new ‘strong mayor’ powers to see the plan through.

Giving his first news conference of his third term on Wednesday morning, Tory announced a plan to reorganize and create a new development and growth division for housing.

“We’re in a housing crisis in Canada. And that is being felt acutely in Toronto,” Tory said. “We simply have to do better as a city,”

“We can do (things) much faster so that we can get built the housing that we need, including more affordable housing.”

The aim is for the plan to help streamline the process of getting developments built faster by speeding up approval times. Tory says he hopes the new division will be up and running by early 2023.

“This plan will be a major contributor to ensuring development applications move as efficiently as possible through our system, without sacrificing necessary diligence,” he says.

Tory to use strong mayor powers if required

The mayor added that he will not hesitate to use his newly bestowed strong mayor powers in order to see the plan through.

“I want to be very clear, this is an issue of which I am laser-focused,” Tory said. “We will be acting with as much urgency as possible.”

The new powers came into effect following Monday’s municipal election. They were granted by the province to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, allowing them to veto certain bylaws that conflict with provincial priorities.

The move was seen as a bid by the province to ensure housing could get built more quickly and Tory had voiced his support for the proposed change.

City council could still override the mayor’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote.

Tory was predictably re-elected on Monday, becoming the first post-amalgamation mayor of Toronto to win the city’s top job a third time. The looming housing crisis and the city’s unprecedented budget shortfall were widely viewed as the two biggest challenges he will face in his next chapter as mayor.

The provincial government introduced a new host of measures on Tuesday that aim to speed up new home construction. These include reduced developer charges and allowing more units on a single residential lot.

The Progressive Conservative government has promised to build 1.5 million homes in 10 years and have identified 29 municipalities in which the bulk of the new housing will need to be built in order to reach that goal. The province says Toronto will need 285,000 new homes.

The list of municipalities with the greatest housing needs could point to other cities Ford may grant strong mayor powers to in the future.

With files from the Canadian Press