Ford’s floundering housing policy bailed out by Ottawa

Last month, the City of Toronto and the Government of Canada announced funding totalling more than $3.4 billion to accelerate the construction of 18 rental housing projects in the city, which has been struggling to build new housing. But after years of failed housing policy in Ontario, do these colossal sums mark the beginning of a real solution? Or are they simply a generous bailout for real estate developers in crisis?

In their media release, the PM’s office breaks down how they intend for cash to flow from federal coffers to Toronto’s housing projects. The construction of 5,600 rental properties will be delivered through two Crown corporations: Build Canada Homes as the “non-market” (controlled by NGOs) channel, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CHMC) Apartment Construction Loan Program to provide loans to developers, described as the “market” channel. CHMC funds will be going to nine housing projects under the management of several different developers, such as Castlepoint Numa, Kilmer Group, and Tricon Residential.

Despite federal boasting on delivering affordable housing, the majority of these units are, by the government’s own admission, not affordable. Of the 3,700 rental homes slated to be delivered via the CMHC loan program, only upwards of 1,000 are to be “affordable”. Only 1,900 rentals are expected to be delivered by the “non-market” route, of which 700 are stated to be “supportive and affordable”, and 1,100 being rent controlled.

It is important to note that what is considered “affordable housing” in Ontario is equal to or less than 100% of market value, meaning that at current market rates, a one-bedroom apartment listed at $2200 per month is considered “affordable”. And these prices seem unlikely to drop anytime soon.

Building for who?

During the August 5th announcement of the funding in Toronto, Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that “Toronto didn’t build enough housing, and too much of what was built was unaffordable for most Torontonians.”

Indeed, for years, unaffordable new condo units have been bought predominantly by investors. According to Statistics Canada, in 2022, 38.9% of all condo units in Toronto were owned by small-scale investors who did not occupy these units. This oversaturation of properties built as investments contributed to overall housing crisis and the following condo glut, which has ultimately had a devastating impact on sales (and developers’ profits).

Between Q4 of 2025, and Q1 of 2026, the average price of a Toronto condo unit dropped 6.1% from $658,700 to $618,484. Greater Toronto Area sales during the period between January and March of 2026 numbered only 246 new units, only increasing to 702 between April and June after the provincial government stepped in and cut HST on new residential properties.

However, it is the next sentence in Carney’s statement that reveals his true colors: “Prices were driven up by development charges, by taxes, by rising construction costs, and then a lack of available land. And the best way to meet the challenge this creates is to build more housing and to build it faster.” Despite a veneer of the government taking charge, the provincial and federal governments still intend to rely on the market to “supercharge housing construction across the country.”

Yet this same market, made up of the same buyers and developers, has time and again failed to resolve the housing crisis—not to mention that Carney and Ford aren’t the first to try. The abandonment of social housing and the financialization of privately developed housing has been decades in the making. 

The Mulroney government began cuts to social and co-operative housing for low- to middle-income families in the 1990s. This was followed by policies cutting rent control and the shifting of housing policy to the provinces. What followed was decades of privately funded luxury condo development, (sub)urban sprawl, and housing becoming a highly lucrative vehicle for private equity.

With affordable social housing out of the picture, the sky was the limit for developers who could build high-profit single family homes or luxury condos. In turn, corporate and financialized landlords could buy up expensive properties and charge exorbitant rents with no fear of rent control policies while also profiting from the skyrocketing values of their properties.

In Ontario, StatsCan estimates that 42% of all condominiums are owned as investment assets. In Toronto, StatsCan claims that 38% of condo units are not occupied by their owners. 

Since being elected in 2018, Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives have continued along the same lines. They have promised time and again that deregulation would be the key to building more homes and resolving the housing crisis. First came the Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act (2018), which removed rent control on all new residential units, benefiting landlords and allowing developers to sell units at higher market rates. 

The More Homes Built Faster Act (2022) again benefited developers by cutting development fees and bypassing environmental reviews on new housing projects. Most recently, the controversial Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act (2025) included amendments to streamline development bureaucracy but primarily benefited landlords by limiting tenant rights at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Despite passing numerous bills to cut red tape and speed up housing development, Ford and the Progressive Conservatives have continuously failed to meet their housing targets. Data from 2025 shows that construction began on 62,561 new homes in 2025—less than half of the targeted 150,000. 

Housing starts in Ontario have been so weak that the province has had to pad housing stats by counting basements and long term care beds as housing units. The province further dug itself into a hole by cancelling affordable, high-density housing projects. Triplexes and fourplexes were canned in 2024 in favour of high-value single family homes and condos.

During last year’s housing price drop, speculators, developers, and housing think-tanks weighed in on the state of the market, citing economic damage and the declining values of property— speculators seeing damages to their investments.

The Financial Post calls the current condo glut a “blood bath for sellers”, dubbing the event “Toronto’s Condopocolypse”. Their article describes in depth the losses that speculators and developers are experiencing due to the price of condos sliding. 

And now on average, workers in Toronto must either drop 30 to 50% of their monthly earnings on rent, or front over $46,000 (more than the median yearly income) for a down payment on an average single home priced at $968,000. With Ontario’s housing starts at their lowest level in a long time, profits are low due to declining sales and falling prices, leaving a shortage of capital for new construction. And what is the government doing?

When the market took a slight downturn due to entirely preventable circumstances—resulting from policy that favoured the short-term gains of developers and speculators—the federal government stepped in to bail out the PC’s failing housing policy. It provided that capital, funded by taxpayers, allowing developers who built the luxury condos of the “Condopocalypse”, such as the L-Tower and Palace Place (Castlepoint Numa), or units in the Port Credit West Village (Kilmer Group) to continue operating without having to question the status quo.