Toronto Region Board of Trade Urges Zoning Reforms to Boost Housing Supply

08:16 AM EDT, 10/01/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBT) is urging the Ontario government to reform zoning rules and update the building code to accelerate housing development across the Canadian province. Ontario is projected to fall more than 550,000 homes short of its 1.5 million-home target by 2029, highlighting the need to accelerate housing construction, said TRBT in a Thursday report titled "A Blueprint for Growth: Towards a New Deal for Housing." Hundreds of differing municipal zoning rules across Ontario add costs and delays, limiting builders' ability to scale, added TRBT, urging more standardized housing regulations to create a unified market and enable faster, larger-scale construction. "Broader as-of-right development, clearer provincial zoning standards, and a modernized building code that makes missing middle housing easier to build is the minimum needed to meet our housing goals," said Giles Gherson, president and chief executive officer of TRBT in the report. More flexible and predictable housing rules are needed to close Ontario's projected supply gap, while expanding housing near jobs will be increasingly important to the province's long-term economic resilience, according to TRBT.