Across Ontario, Premier Ford's More Homes Built Faster Act (Bill 23) drastically reduces the development charges builders are required to pay urban and rural municipalities — fees that fund infrastructure: water and sewer upgrades, transit expansion, roads, child care programs, libraries, community centres, parks, shelters for the vulnerable, fire and emergency services. 

For the City of Toronto alone, this means a $2.3 BILLION LOSS over ten years. It leaves the City with an infrastructure funding gap and no choice but to raise our property taxes. March 31, 2026, the provincial and federal governments slashed development charges by 50%, and promised to spend $8.8 billion on infrastructure — funded by our income taxes. This amounts to tens of billions of dollars paid for by Ontario taxpayers — instead of developers.

Across Ontario, Bill 23 drastically reduces the power of Conservation Authorities to protect floodplains, rivers, lakes, forests, farmland, wetland and shorelines. * In 2023, the newly passed Bill 23 was one of many bills that stripped environmental protection from 7,400 acres of land in the Greenbelt.

March 10, 2026, the Ford government confirmed it will reduce the number of Conservation Authorities from thirty-six to nine by early 2027 — and place them under the Ontario Provincial Conservation Authority (OPCA) — who is legally required to uphold provincial policy, like Bill 23 - More Homes Built Faster Act. 

Bill 23 drastically reduces the authority of municipalities over planning decisions. Planners in cities, districts and towns have significantly LESS POWER to enforce height, density, land use, and community benefits — retail space, daycares. 

In municipalities, large and small, developers are bypassing community concerns and municipal Councils by appealing directly to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). Created in 2021 by the Ford government, the OLT:

• Legally is required to uphold provincial policy
• Possesses the power to override municipal bylaws
• Exercises provincial power over local matters: environment, heritage, and planning
• Finds in favour of developers more than 90% of the time
• Possesses the power to order losing parties to pay the winner’s legal costs

It has never been easier for developers to overturn municipal decisions. And it has never been harder for municipalities and residents to challenge them.

January 29, 2026, the Ford government froze affordable housing by pausing Inclusionary Zoning. Developers of massive projects near transit hubs in Toronto, Mississauga and Kitchener are no longer required to supply 5% of their units towards affordable housing. This exemption is grandfathered for all applications filed before July 1, 2027. (Happy Canada Day.) 

A warning for the GTA is the Bloor Street West Corridor, in Etobicoke. A proposed 39‑storey high-rise at 69 Old Mill Terrace is set to replace a 3-storey rental building — already an affordable home to young families, seniors, and long‑term tenants. Developers have not shown how a luxury condo tower — one‑quarter the height of the CN Tower — can fit on a corner lot of a small residential street, with aging sewers and subway, single‑lane traffic, on a bus route serving two schools already at‑capacity. Nor is it clear how a high-rise that is 60% studio/one bedroom units, lacking any affordable housing, can provide the livable spaces families need. On the same block, there are eleven, mid-rise rental apartments hundreds of tenants call home. We must say NO to this precedent-setting high-rise.

Communities across Ontario are paying the price for Bill 23: 

• Protected watershed areas proposed for development.
• Existing affordable housing demolished — rent-controlled apartments, mobile home parks — tenants displaced, without sufficient compensation, to make room to build "affordable housing".
• 30-, 60-, 90-storey high-rises approved by Ontario Land Tribunal, without a commitment to building livable spaces for families to grow. 
• Massive projects built faster than the infrastructure needed to support them: schools, hospitals, water, sewer, transit, roads, child care programs, libraries, community centres, parks, shelters for the vulnerable, fire and emergency services.
• Overdevelopment without a vision for livability, or quality of life.

Growth should strengthen communities, not erode them.   

We support housing. We are asking for homes — with real space — for families, and infrastructure to make our cities, districts and towns livable. We want to be an example of what RESPONSIBLE growth looks like when it's done right. 

We call on the Province to:

• Repeal More Homes Built Faster Act (Bill 23) to reinstate:
  • Infrastructure paid for by developers. NOT by raising our property or income taxes.
  • Conservation Authorities oversight over watershed management
  • Municipal authority over planning decisions
  • Meaningful community consultation — Stop silencing residents 
• Unfreeze Inclusionary Zoning so developers are once again required to supply affordable housing
• Major density policy MUST be tied to proven infrastructure capacity and funding
• Repeal designations for Protected Major Transit Station Areas (PMTSA) and Major Transit Station Areas (MTSA) if infrastructure capacity and funding are not proven
• Fast‑track provincial funding for schools, transit, roads, healthcare and utilities to keep pace with rapid development

We call on the Ontario Land Tribunal to:

• Approve responsible proposals, ONLY WITH a commitment from developers to drastically increase the number of livable, 2-3 bedroom units for families to address the housing crisis they face
• Approve responsible development proposals based on their cumulative impact on infrastructure — Stop planning in silos
• Reject irresponsible development proposals if rapid growth outpaces infrastructure and STAFFING — teachers, nurses, firefighters, paramedics

We call on Municipalities across Ontario to:

• STAND WITH their constituents AGAINST irresponsible provincial planning policies 

Sign and share. ONTARIO'S COMMUNITIES — and our future — depend on it.

#FamiliesFirst #SmartGrowth #MoreHomesBuiltBETTER #GreaterCommunityOfOntario

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/ontarioforfamiliesandinfrastructurefirst/