Municipalities need local…

Municipalities need local tools to ensure they have climate-safe housing that fits their community.

Municipal green building standards help ensure that homes and buildings are more energy efficient and affordable to run, and have added protection against the increase in extreme weather events like flooding and wildfires that communities are facing across the province. 

Bill 17 could strip municipalities of important powers that they need to ensure new buildings can withstand local conditions. The climate and energy efficiency provisions in Ontario’s Building Code haven’t been updated since 2017, which makes local rules critical. Communities like Brampton, Ottawa, and Thunder Bay all face different present and future climate risks, and local communities need the power to ensure that homes being built today are protected from those risks.

It’s 100% possible to build quickly, and build green, climate-safe, affordable homes, and we don’t need to look far for proof. Toronto has managed to exceed its provincial housing targets with green building standards already in place since 2010. 

We need to tackle the housing crisis. But the real solutions for building quickly and affordably - like allowing more midrise and infill housing - are being ignored. What’s slowing down housing in Ontario is the obsession with building massive McMansions in the Greenbelt instead of building where services like water and electricity already exist.

We need strong, local green building standards to ensure that new homes are affordable to operate and that our communities are safe from local changing climate conditions.

Green buildings are more affordable to operate, healthier to live in, and protect communities from extreme weather events like flooding and heat. Eliminating or even loosening local green building standards will make tenants and homeowners worse off, and could lead to the need for expensive repairs in the future.