Concerns about Ontario’s environmental protections have been raised after a comment made by Premier Doug Ford.
During an April 4 press conference in Orillia, Ford, speaking about the need to build more infrastructure, said: “Let’s not take three or four years to get a permit. Let’s not put the barriers up because there’s a grasshopper in a field and everyone has to stop and wait for that grasshopper—it’s ridiculous.”
After the comment was made, the CBC reported that it had been leaked an internal government document that proposed transforming or eliminating all permits issued at the provincial and municipal levels by the end of 2025.
In many cases, these permits protect Ontario’s environment, policing development’s waste management and pollution control. Cottage country municipalities, for instance, have stipulations in their building permits (such as how close to the shoreline property owners are allowed to build) to protect lakes’ water quality. Without these permits, there would be little oversight in the development process.
In the past, Ford has referred to permits as red tape, blaming Ontario’s housing crisis on them. This is also not the first time Ford has proposed stripping these types of environmental protections. In November 2022, the Ontario government announced that it would be opening nearly 3,000 hectares of land in the province’s protected Greenbelt to development, contradicting a pledge Ford made in 2021.
Doug Ford reverses controversial Greenbelt decision
This decision was reversed in September 2022 after Ontario’s Auditor General and the RCMP launched investigations into Ford’s ties to the developers that owned the land.
Phil Pothen, a Toronto land use planning lawyer and the Ontario environment program manager for non-profit Environmental Defense, says the proposed permit overhaul is the same tactic the government’s been using since it was elected. “This is the government’s third effort to rebrand the same package, the same kinds of concessions to its friends,” he says. “This is about giveaways to influential political doners and political interests. It is not barriers to development of farmland or development in forest areas that are stopping homes from getting built.”
Pothen points out that the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area has set aside 350 square kilometres of land for development thanks to the expansion of urban boundaries around areas such as Peel, York, and Halton. That’s three times the amount of land developed in the GTHA between 2001 and 2019—enough to meet projected housing demand for the next 30 years. Yet, the land sits untouched. This is because a combination of provincial planning rules and zoning restrictions has convinced developers they won’t be able to make a profit from it.
In fact, Ontario’s construction of single-family homes in 2025 is lower than almost any other province in Canada. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Ontario has seen 16 per cent fewer homes built this year compared to the same time last year.
Despite Ford’s claims that environmental protections are holding back home constructions, Pothen says it’s actually regulations around building in urban centres. “People want homes that they’ll be able to afford, and that means building within existing neighborhoods and built-up areas,” he says.
Environmental Defense has communicated to the government the need for mid-rise buildings in towns and cities, rather than developmental sprawl with single-family homes. Six storeys is an ideal height, Pothen says. By redesigning neighbourhoods in cities and towns with mid-rise buildings, Environmental Defense argues that Ontario could meet its housing need without having to develop more of the province’s natural spaces.
But current Ontario laws impose additional fees, taxes, and approvals on mid-rise housing, while limiting where they can be built to expensive land, making them unappealing to developers. Pothen says he believes the government is unwilling to look at mid-rise buildings as a solution because developers close to Ford can make more money building single-family homes.
“That is why it is important to call the government on its nonsense when it claims that it’s somehow environmental protections that are stopping things from getting built,” he says.
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