{"id":166093,"date":"2025-08-22T09:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166093\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:06:19","slug":"no-sign-of-housing-deal-after-housing-minister-meets-with-toronto-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166093\/","title":{"rendered":"No sign of housing deal after Housing Minister meets with Toronto mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow at The Globe and Mail\u2019s head office in Toronto in July. Ms. Chow met with federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson on Thursday.Sammy Kogan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow<\/a> met with federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson on Thursday, but there was no sign of an end to their spat over her council\u2019s failure to meet Ottawa\u2019s demand to allow sixplexes across her city \u2013 a requirement for millions in housing funding. <\/p>\n

Mr. Robertson, who left after the hour-long meeting at city hall without addressing reporters, has previously called the city\u2019s decision to only allow sixplexes in certain wards \u201cdisappointing.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the Housing Minister, who is a former mayor of Vancouver, has not directly confirmed whether he would reduce Toronto\u2019s $118-million share of Ottawa\u2019s Housing Accelerator Fund as a result.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, Ms. Chow would not say whether Mr. Robertson had given any indication that he would spare the city when he makes a decision on the funding early next year. <\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor confident city\u2019s compromise on sixplexes won\u2019t risk federal housing funding<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto wrangles with a simple question: What is a multiplex?<\/a><\/p>\n

The mayor said the pair did not directly discuss the funding cut. Instead, Ms. Chow said she highlighted the recently released plans from the city and the province to allow more high-density development \u2013 ranging from sixplexes to skyscrapers \u2013 near transit stations. That plan must still be approved by council. <\/p>\n

The mayor added that she showed Mr. Robertson a list of approved housing projects, amounting to 30,000 units, which she said would go ahead immediately if the federal government stepped in with cash to allow the city to waive what are known as development charges. Those fees, which can be as much as $150,000 a unit, go toward needed infrastructure such as roads and pipes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed him the list, and he said \u2018My god, we can get shovels in the ground?\u2019 And I said \u2018Yes, now,\u2019\u201d Ms. Chow said. <\/p>\n

Ms. Chow said the city is on track to overperform on its overall commitment under its housing agreement with Ottawa to build about 60,000 new homes over three years, even without the blanket requirement for sixplexes. <\/p>\n

She argued that approving more sixplexes would only result in a few hundred extra homes, while her discussion with Mr. Robertson focused on much bigger housing projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf all sixplexes were approved across the city, the uptake is very low. At most it\u2019s 500 units. We\u2019re talking about another 30,000 units, not 500,\u201d Ms. Chow said.<\/p>\n

Toronto and other governments across the country are grappling with a housing crisis that many blame, in part, on restrictive zoning rules that have left several neighbourhoods full of low-density single-family homes. <\/p>\n

Facing this demand for zoning reform, but also opposition from some suburban councillors, Toronto passed a compromise motion in June that allows sixplexes in nine of the city\u2019s 25 wards. <\/p>\n

Mr. Robertson\u2019s predecessor as housing minister, Toronto MP Nate Erskine-Smith, had warned earlier this year that the city\u2019s decision would see Ottawa cut $30-million in housing funds. <\/p>\n

In July, Ms. Chow told The Globe and Mail she was still confident that the federal government would recognize the other progress her city has made on housing and provide the funding. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Mr. Robertson, Ren\u00e9e LeBlanc Proctor, told The Globe that the housing funding decision would not be made for several months. She said the mayor and the minister had \u201ca really constructive conversation\u201d about how to get more housing built. <\/p>\n

Ms. Chow\u2019s Thursday meeting with Mr. Robertson was supposed to be followed by a joint press conference, but Mr. Robertson\u2019s office cancelled those plans on Wednesday, blaming scheduling problems. <\/p>\n

Ms. Chow had sent a letter to city council on Wednesday warning of a $107-million shortfall in federal funding for sheltering refugees. <\/p>\n

Ms. Chow, who said Thursday she did not raise the issue with Mr. Robertson, added the city has been making the case to Ottawa that the refugee costs are a federal responsibility.<\/p>\n

She said the city has already spent most of the cash in question, with roughly 3,500 refugee claimants making up about 40 per cent of those in the city\u2019s emergency shelter system. <\/p>\n

Ms. LeBlanc Proctor said the cancellation of the joint press conference was not related to the refugee issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow at The Globe and Mail\u2019s head office in Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-166093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}