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The Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT) put housing supply and attainability on the agenda as economic and workforce issues. Its December 9, 2025 event announcement, “Out with the Old: New Paths to New Housing,” outlined discussion of development charges and infrastructure funding, building-code rules, construction technology, and new financing and ownership models. It was an event agenda—not a final policy platform or evidence that any reform was adopted.
Why did the Board link housing to economic growth?
TRBOT argued that employers have difficulty recruiting and retaining workers who cannot find attainable homes, making housing constraints a regional competitiveness concern. The event announcement also associated project delays with rising costs, labour shortages, and regulations it characterized as outdated. These are the Board’s stated rationale; the event page does not independently establish those causal claims or quantify their effects.
The planned event brought together people from government, construction, infrastructure, planning, finance, and housing-related organizations. The page named Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack as an opening keynote speaker and Giles Gherson, TRBOT president and CEO, for opening and closing remarks. These listings describe the announced program, not confirmed attendance or shared positions.
Which regulatory and funding changes were on the agenda?
Development charges and infrastructure financing
The event description said development charges help pay for infrastructure needed to support new housing, including water and sewer systems, roads, transit, and community centres. A planned panel was to consider standardizing what municipalities can collect and exploring alternative ways to fund that infrastructure. The Board’s event copy described broad agreement that charges need an overhaul, while noting less clarity about what might replace them. It did not specify or endorse a particular replacement model.
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The announced panel included Erin Mahoney of York Region, David Wilkes of BILD, Nick Gefucia of EllisDon Community Builders, and Charles Todd of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The agenda does not report their conclusions.
Building-code modernization
A planned building-code panel framed the question as whether to shift from prescriptive requirements toward flexible, performance-based standards. In the Board’s description, the aim was to preserve safety while supporting innovation and reducing red tape. The page offered no technical proposal, draft code language, or assessment of how a change would affect safety, costs, or delivery time. Stephen Smith of the Center for Building and Robyn Brown of Arcadis were listed for the panel.
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What role could construction technology play?
The Board’s event announcement highlighted modular and factory-built housing, along with robotics-enabled construction, as approaches that might shorten timelines and reduce costs. It presented these as possibilities within an innovation discussion, not as measured outcomes. The page supplied no project data, vendor names, or comparisons showing how much faster or cheaper these methods are than conventional construction.
How did the agenda address home ownership and affordability?
The program was also to explore new financing and ownership arrangements, including rent-to-own, as possible ways to expand affordability and support market stability. The announcement did not give terms, eligibility rules, performance evidence, or an endorsement of any specific provider or product.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →For readers evaluating such models, the event page leaves the practical questions unanswered: who qualifies, what costs and risks each party takes on, and whether a proposed arrangement makes housing more attainable over time. Those details would need to come from the terms of a particular program rather than from the Board’s agenda.
The announced home-ownership discussion listed Wellington Holbrook of Vancity, George Carras of R-LABS Canada Inc., and Heather Kirk of Key Living. Their inclusion identifies planned participants, not evidence that they endorsed one another’s views or that a particular model was adopted.
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What the event announcement does—and does not—establish
TRBOT’s official event page, “Out with the Old: New Paths to New Housing”, describes an event planned for December 9, 2025. It establishes the topics the Board intended to discuss and the rationale it presented. It does not establish final recommendations, event outcomes, changes to current regulations, or subsequent policy adoption.
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- What it establishes: the Board placed infrastructure funding, development charges, building-code approaches, construction innovation, and ownership and financing models on the agenda.
- What it does not establish: which reforms the Board ultimately recommended, whether the event produced consensus, or whether any government enacted a change.
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