New Ontario Act Aims to Speed Up Housing Infrastructure

May 26, 2025

Ontario is introducing the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 to help speed up the construction of new homes and infrastructure, including by streamlining development processes and reducing costs in close partnership with municipalities.

The province is also increasing its historic investment in housing-enabling infrastructure by adding $400 million in immediate funding to the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF) and Municipal Housing Infrastructure Fund (MHIP) for a total of nearly $2.3 billion over four years across the HEWSF and the MHIP.

Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: “The legislation we’re tabling today responds to recommendations and requests from municipal leaders, and will help build the homes and infrastructure Ontario needs.”

The Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025, if passed, and related actions would:

• Spur new construction by simplifying and standardizing development charges based on measures that were developed in consultation with municipalities, including measures that some municipalities have already implemented. Ontario will work with municipalities to continue simplifying, streamlining and reducing costly local development fees that can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of new homes.
   
• Remove barriers for Canadian manufacturers who want to introduce innovative materials, systems and building designs that could reduce construction costs and expedite projects.
   
• Streamline and improve planning and delivery for transit-oriented communities, creating more jobs and housing options near transit.
   
• Reduce costs and speed up project approvals with consistent building construction standards across Ontario municipalities.
   
• Significantly speed up getting shovels in the ground to build major transit projects by extending measures in the Building Transit Faster Act, 2020 to all provincial transit projects.
   
• Simplify, streamline and bring consistency and transparency to development applications, land use planning approvals, and contents of municipal official plans. These changes would make it easier and faster to build residential, commercial and industrial buildings within and across Ontario’s municipalities.
   
• Ontario’s road building standards can differ across the province’s 444 municipalities, causing unnecessary cost and delays. The province will consult with municipalities and stakeholders by fall 2025 on framework legislation for greater harmonization and clarified governance of municipal standards, which will lead to cost savings through more efficient design and technical review, greater construction efficiencies and streamlined procurement processes.

Through HEWSF, the province has already allocated nearly $1.3 billion for water and waste-water infrastructure projects that will enable the construction of approximately 600,000 homes. Ontario has also invested approximately $700 million in MHIP. Combined with the new $400 million ($315 million for HEWSF and $85 million for MHIP) this brings the new total investment to nearly $2.3 billion.

Through the Building Faster Fund, the government has also provided municipalities with $286.8 million for community and housing-enabling infrastructure last year, along with $120 million dedicated for small, rural and Northern municipalities without housing targets which is being delivered through the HEWSF and MHIP. This is in addition to the $1 billion in flexible loans for housing-enabling water infrastructure projects available to municipalities through the Infrastructure Ontario Loan Program.

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Quick Facts

• The Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 and other proposed measures consist of 20 initiatives that would accelerate provincial permitting and approvals.
• The proposals work together with measures proposed in Bill 2, the Protect Ontario through Free Trade within Canada Act, 2025 and Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025, as part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario by strengthening internal trade relationships, supporting faster provincial development and supporting buying local.
• Ontario is currently investing nearly $1.3 billion through first and second intakes of HEWSF to support 77 water infrastructure projects that will help municipalities build approximately 600,000 new homes across the province. HEWSF helps municipalities build, repair, rehabilitate and expand critical drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
• Ontario is investing $175 million through the MHIP Health and Safety Water Stream to help municipalities and First Nations build, repair and expand the capacity of aging water, flood and erosion infrastructure.
• The province is also currently investing $400 million through the MHIP Housing-Enabling Core Servicing Stream to support the construction of up to 160,000 new homes and ensure these growing communities are connected to reliable roadways. MHIP provides funding for core infrastructure projects that support growing and developing communities.

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