The City of Vaughan and Simcoe County announced substantial reductions to their development charges through the Ontario Development Charge Reduction Program (DCRP).

These announcements highlight an important principle for housing affordability. Reducing development charges (DCs) can lower the upfront cost of housing, but municipalities also need support to continue investing in the infrastructure required to sustain growth.

Vaughan has demonstrated strong municipal leadership in this area. The City acted early to reduce DCs to improve the feasibility of residential projects and support new housing construction. It has since introduced even more significant measures, including the full elimination of municipal DCs for eligible residential developments. Through the DCRP, the City is now receiving up to $697.2 million to help fund housing-enabling infrastructure, recognizing the infrastructure funding pressures that can arise when municipalities reduce upfront development costs to encourage housing growth.

Simcoe County has also moved forward with its application to the province to reduce DCs. The County will work to amend the Development Charges By-law to reduce residential charges by 50 per cent across all residential types for three years as part of the DCRP, which ties access to infrastructure funding to those reductions. Once the County updates the zoning by-law, the change will be retroactive from March 30, 2026.

Development charges are among the largest costs the government imposes on housing in Ontario. These charges can add up to 20 per cent of a home’s price, significantly affecting homebuyers and renters.

While these charges help fund growth-related infrastructure, new homebuyers and renters ultimately pay these costs. Finding more sustainable ways to fund infrastructure while reducing these upfront costs is therefore critical to improving housing affordability and project viability.

TRREB welcomes the recent announcements as we have consistently advocated for lower upfront development costs as one of the most effective ways to support new housing supply and improve affordability across the Greater Golden Horseshoe. TRREB also thanks the federal and provincial governments for recognizing the importance of pairing development charge reform with investments in municipal infrastructure.