Ontario reached only 86,760 housing starts against its 150,000-unit target for 2025 — 58 per cent — even using the province’s broadened definition of housing that counts basement suites, laneway units, long-term care beds, retirement homes and student housing, according to internal government documents obtained by Global News through a freedom-of-information request.
Of that total, 65,476 were conventional housing starts as tracked by CMHC. The rest were made up of 13,693 basement and laneway suites, 4,522 long-term care beds, 1,102 retirement home units and 1,967 student housing spaces. Just 13 of the 50 municipalities with targets under the province’s Building Faster Fund hit their 2025 goals, down from 15 the year before. Mississauga reached 24 per cent of its target, Vaughan 26 per cent, Windsor 47 per cent, and both Toronto and Markham 49 per cent.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said in a statement: “Since 2023, we have invested more than \$14 billion through the Development Charge Reduction Program, the Building Faster Fund, and the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, helping municipalities lower costs, cut red tape, and get shovels in the ground sooner.” Liberal MPP Adil Shamji called the shortfall “a systemic issue, a lack of leadership at the provincial level.”
Source: Isaac Callan and Colin D’Mello, “Ontario Hit Just 58% of Its 2025 Housing Target, Internal Documents Show,” Global News, 9 September 2026.
