Ontario’s 2025 Throne Speech addressed many social policy issues Ontarians are struggling with, namely housing and health care. While Premier Doug Ford attempted to put forward a plan to help alleviate some of the key problems that Ontarians are experiencing, his solutions may not be entirely what we need to solve those problems.
Let’s consider each of the two issues in turn.
It’s well known that Ontario is in a serious housing crisis. Between June 2023 and June 2024, Ontario needed 200,000 new homes to keep up with the rate that the population is growing. Yet the province only built 82,000 new homes, which means Ontario built around 40 per cent of the actual number of homes needed. Ford’s solution according to his Throne Speech includes a promise to work with municipalities to lower development fees that put a serious burden on the very developers that can solve this problem for them, which is a great idea. The Ford government also promised to “standardize and bring more transparency” to the cost and timelines of building homes, which could include reviewing various requirements and approval processes, something that the Consumer Choice Center has long advocated for.
However, the word “standardize” ought to give Ontarians pause. The federal Liberal government used the word “standardize” when it chose to standardize development processes through its housing plan, which sought to re-introduce a standardized housing design catalogue similar to the one Canada used in the 1940s. It also sought to invest in standardizing building processes to apparently make construction more efficient.
Nonetheless, the last thing developers need is the government telling them how to do things. What they do need is the freedom to build. The housing crisis is too problematic to wait for things like potential consultations about standardizing building regulations. The real solution is to work with municipalities to not only lower fees but also to eliminate various zoning laws and red tape to help developers do what they do best – build. Ford would do well to stay away from standardizing when contemplating the future of housing.
In terms of the Throne Speech’s promise to make Canadian construction materials mandatory for government-funded infrastructure projects, Ford’s motivations might seem understandable. Given the heated trade war with the United States, it is clear why this is being made a priority. However, making it mandatory to buy Canadian goods actually harms Ontarians in two different ways.
First, under Ford’s proposed framework, developers won’t be free to seek the best price out there for these materials. This will slow down the building process and make it potentially much more expensive for Canadian taxpayers who are footing the bill.
Second, if Canadian industry is the only game in town, less competition will mean less incentive to offer the best price. And, that’s if Canadian industry can keep up with demand. A time of crisis is not time to close off the rest of the world. While Canada is presently in a trade conflict with the United States, shutting the door on the entire world outside Canada’s borders isn’t the answer. Embracing more and freer international free trade is. Competition protects consumers from higher prices due to a lack of competition, and Ford’s proposed Canada-only approach to construction materials could lead to exactly that.
Another policy area where Ontarians are looking for solutions is health care. Ontarians from every corner of the province can share stories of personal challenges they’ve faced in trying to access the health-care system. Some wait years on surgery waitlists, while others spend hours just waiting to be seen and get the urgent care they need.
The Throne Speech delivers some good news for Ontario consumers, such as a renewed pledge to connect every person in the province to a family doctor and primary care within the next four years, and leveraging the skills of pharmacists and other health care professionals. However, the Throne Speech’s emphasis on public health care does not address the problem that Canada ranks second last in the latest Consumer Choice Center’s Health Care Wait Time Index, only beating out Ireland.
Sixty-nine percent of Canadians support private sector involvement alongside the public system in order to offer them better care, and yet it seems the province is closed off to the possibility. Switzerland and the Netherlands landed near the top of the Time Saved Index, and that is in large part because of their decision to open up their health-care systems to an infusion of government-funded private care. As Quebec has shown, backlogs can be eliminated when they contract private clinics to undertake day surgeries. If Quebec can do it, why won’t Ontario do the same? In fact, one out of every six government-funded surgeries in Quebec now take place in private clinics, so there is precedent. Simply ruling out any possibility of a public-private health-care partnership is cold comfort to Ontarians dealing with a failing health-care system.
While Ontario’s Throne Speech had some positives when it comes to housing and health care choices for consumers, it is also a wakeup call that Ontario still has a long way to go in addressing its chronic policy problems. There are simple solutions out there to encourage more home building and improve Ontarians’ access to medical care, but so far, the Ford government doesn’t seem willing to consider them. For the sake of Ontarians, Ford needs to take a hard look at his policy priorities and turn to stronger policy solutions that can actually help solve the problems plaguing Ontarians across the province.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager and Sabine El-Chidiac is the Canadian Policy Associate at the Consumer Choice Center
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
