Ontario’s housing minister is conceding that the number of new homes in the province is stuttering and his government won’t be able to hand out incentive rewards to many cities for hitting their targets, but says he hopes new legislation will help.

On Friday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack accepted that the number of new homes in Ontario was lagging far behind the targets the province set itself, calling the situation “a major crisis” across Canada.

“I can tell you, housing starts are down, we know that,” Flack said at a news conference in Toronto.

The Ford government has set itself a target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031, winning a large majority in the 2022 provincial election under the promise.

To meet that target, Ontario needed to see an average of 150,000 n

See Full Page