Residential Housing in Ontario: The Impact of Bill 17

The Government of Ontario introduced Bill 17, the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, which received royal assent in June 2025. This bill is aimed at speeding up the construction of homes and supporting infrastructure for new housing, with the overarching goal of driving economic and job growth.

The labyrinth of municipal planning processes, exorbitant taxes and fees on new housing, as well as higher interest rates (for builders and consumers alike) has made it nearly impossible for prospective homebuyers to afford new home product offerings. This has been made abundantly clear as the GTA’s housing starts have fallen off a cliff, with new home sales down 90% since the 2021 peak of the market.

Consumers have spoken. They are unwilling and financially unable to pay these prices for new housing. Bill 17 aims to tackle the systemic regulatory challenges noted above, primarily by lowering development charges to reduce financial barriers as well as streamline and standardize municipal approval processes to help increase housing supply.

As part of the streamlining and standardization initiative under Bill 17, the Province has clarified municipal jurisdiction over construction standards. The Building Code Act always contained a “paramountcy” provision, which enforced that the Ontario Building Code (OBC) supersede all municipal bylaws respecting the construction of buildings, consistent with the intention that the Code establish a uniform provincial regime for the regulation of construction.