Ontario Premier Ford Blames Province’s Housing Crisis on Ottawa’s Immigration Policies

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to members of the media during a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the federal government is to blame for the province’s housing crisis, claiming Ottawa’s immigration policies have brought over 800,000 additional people into Ontario, which contradicts government figures.

“In the last election, we didn’t have the housing crisis. And just up to a few months back, I didn’t know the federal government was going to bring in over 500,000 [people]—now we learned that those aren’t accurate numbers, it’s probably up to 700,000 to 800,000 arriving,” Mr. Ford said during a press conference on Aug. 31.

“I didn’t get a phone call from the prime minister saying, ‘Surprise, surprise. We’re dropping these many people into your province and, by the way, good luck, you deal with them.’”

Mr. Ford said his government wanted to use “every tool in the toolbox” to build homes in the province.

“I ran on building homes, making sure that we’re building transit and infrastructure and schools and hospitals. And guess what, folks, we’re the only government—we do what we say we’re going to do. Some people may not like it, but we’re going to get it done,” he said.

In early August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Hamilton that housing “isn’t a primary federal responsibility.” The prime minister added he would like to see more effort made by the Ontario government on the issue.

“They need to be stepping up as well, particularly on affordable housing. That is something that the federal government is taking very seriously, but we need all of us to be working together on it, and that’s what we’re here to continue to do,” said Mr. Trudeau.

Housing Crisis

Housing affordability has become a serious political issue across Canada. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported in January 2023 that the average price of a home in Canada had hit $716,000. The same report also found that the benchmark price of a home in Ontario was at $1.08 million in March 2022—a 64 percent increase since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Nov. 1, 2022, the federal government announced plans to bring in 465,000 new immigrants in 2023, another 485,000 next year, and 500,000 in 2025. Questions have been raised about how Canada’s housing supply will keep up. Ottawa has been criticized for increasing its immigration levels at a time when Canadians—including those newcomers to the country—struggle to find housing.

“One of the most important things right now, a crisis that we’re seeing, is people that can’t afford a home,” Mr. Ford said during the press conference. “We have asylum seekers, we have immigrants coming here. I got a call from one of my MPPs out in Aurora that there are 50 people living in churches’ basements. I have 170 people in church basements up in Rexdale.”

Mr. Ford has also received questions from reporters about his Housing Minister Steve Clark, who has come under fire since an Aug. 30 report by the auditor general saying he failed to properly oversee his chief of staff’s actions in selecting properties to remove from the Ontario Greenbelt for development.

The Ontario premier said he stood behind his housing minister and would not heed calls to fire him. “I have confidence in Minister Clark,” Mr. Ford told reporters in Toronto on Aug. 31. “We understand the process can be better. But our goal at the end of the day is to build 1.5 million homes. That’s the right thing to do.”

‘Pro-Immigration Since Day One’

When the federal government initially announced its 2025 immigration targets, Mr. Ford responded to the plan by saying that while he welcomed Ottawa’s immigration announcement, he was concerned that hundreds of thousands of newcomers in the province would not be able to find housing.

Mr. Ford came under fire in October 2021 after he made comments about the kinds of people who should come to Ontario amid the province’s shortage of workers. “You come here like every other new Canadian has come here, you work your tail off,” Ford said.

“If you think you’re coming to collect the dole and sit around, it’s not going to happen. Go somewhere else. You want to work, come here. We have so much work, we can’t keep up with it right now,” he said.

The Ontario premier rebuked calls from opposition leaders to apologize for the remarks, claiming he had been “pro-immigration from day one.”

“We are short 290,000 people. I was the only government who wrote letter after letter to the prime minister saying we need more people,“ he said. “All you have to do is come to a ‘Ford Fest’ and you’ll see the support from people around the world.”