Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, for the past 25 years, has had a policy requiring municipalities to consistently maintain a minimum three-year supply of short-term land in the pipeline for new housing. However, many municipalities have not complied with or have misapplied the policy with apparent indifference from the provincial government. CUR researchers, Frank Clayton and Giselle Lute explore the evolution of the provincial short-term land requirements policy from its inception to subsequent iterations between 1989 and 2024.

The need for an active ongoing inventory of zoned, serviced sites for various housing types is obvious: new housing cannot be built without ready-to-go sites. If the ambitious housing targets of both the Ontario and federal governments are to be given a chance to be attained, it is time to get serious about municipalities maintaining ample supplies of shovel-ready land for a range of housing types.

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