Ontario Construction News staff writer
OTTAWA — A joint municipal committee meeting Tuesday (May 5) reviewed the progress of Ottawa’s Housing Acceleration Plan, reporting the city has completed more than half of its targeted actions over the past six months to speed up home construction.
The Finance and Corporate Services Committee and the Planning and Housing Committee met to evaluate the plan, which city council originally approved in October 2025. A City of Ottawa news release said the plan encompasses 58 actions designed to fundamentally overhaul the municipality’s approach to housing. The initiative also aligns with federal and provincial priorities, supporting Ottawa’s eligibility for upper-tier housing funding programs.
Over the past six months, the city has completed 53 per cent of the plan’s actions. Officials expect to finish 78 per cent of the measures by the end of 2026, with the remainder slated for completion in 2027.
The local construction industry has taken note of the ongoing regulatory shifts. In an April 30 statement, Jason Burggraaf, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA), praised the municipality’s efforts to reform its planning environment.
“Over the past year, the City of Ottawa has made meaningful progress to streamline and improve its development approvals process, with the goal of becoming the most housing-friendly city in the country,” Burggraaf said. “While the market has been stuck in a very long period of low activity, it is critical that the city remain committed to these reforms. When demand returns, these improvements will allow us to scale up housing construction more quickly and efficiently.”
The city’s overarching goal is to reduce development barriers by simplifying regulations and expediting approvals. Progress to date includes:
- Simpler regulations: Adoption of an overhauled Zoning By-law that expands housing permissions, simplifies the planning framework and removes barriers to modular and prefabricated homes.
- Expedited approvals: A reduction in the number of required studies for new development applications and increased capacity in the city’s Legal Services department to speed up reviews.
- Financial flexibility: Temporary reductions to Community Benefits Charges and the deferment of residential development charges and cash-in-lieu of parkland collections to aid project cash flow and feasibility.
- Community housing: Simplified regulations to help not-for-profit providers accelerate the delivery of affordable homes.
- Transit and downtown growth: The removal of zoning barriers near transit stations, the rollout of a pre-approved building design program and a new downtown revitalization strategy.
To track the effectiveness of these measures, the city is introducing a measurement framework using 2025 data as a baseline. The framework evaluates three key outcomes:
- Shorter approval timelines: Measured by faster application reviews, fewer incomplete submissions and quicker completion of legal agreements.
- More housing construction: Emphasizing urban and transit-oriented areas, measured by an increase in building permits issued.
- Increased affordable housing: Measured by a rise in building permits for affordable and supportive housing units.
The joint committee’s recommendations will go before the full city council on Wednesday, May 13. A subsequent progress update, which will include results from the new measurement framework, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2027.
