Stephen Dasko

Mississauga has ranked #3 overall in a new study that measures municipal efforts to approve and develop new housing in the GTA.

• The annual Building Industry and Land Development study ranks 16 GTA municipalities on their planning features, municipal fees and approval timelines.
• This is a significant improvement in the City’s overall ranking compared to the previous study in 2022 when the City ranked 10^th

Mississauga ranked #1 of all municipalities on planning processes – reinforcing the City’s innovative approach to customer experience for those who want to build in Mississauga.

• The report commended Mississauga for its adoption of new technologies including investigating the use of AI.
• Other improvements include the use of delegated authority to speed up approvals processes.
• Updates to zoning by-laws and other innovative programs such as the City’s leadership role in rolling out pre-approved, standardised plans for garden suites also led to the City’s strong performance in this category.

We are pleased with our overall ranking but know there is more work to be done.

• The City remains committed to working with industry – both through our housing panel and the Mayor’s housing task force – on concrete and actionable solutions to getting more housing built quickly and affordably. We also continue to advocate to other levels of government.
• The need for solutions is more timely than ever because development applications are slowing across the board due to a variety of factors beyond the control of the municipality.

Municipal fees such as planning fees, development charges and charges for community benefits and parkland pay for the infrastructure required for new homes.

• Mississauga ranked 10^thof 16($151k per unit) with Bradford West Gwillimbury at the low end ($102k per unit) and Toronto at the high end ($195k per unit) for low-rise development.
• Mississauga ranked 12^th of 16 ($104,450 per unit) with Milton at the low end ($55,834) and Vaughan at the high end ($157, 643 per unit) for high-rise development.
• At this point, cities have limited options in paying for the new infrastructure required for housing.
• We continue to look at other ways to fund this infrastructure or reduce pressure on the funding required to get new homes built, and have called on other levels of government to support.

The City is actively streamlining our development application processes and is working closely with industry to better understand any barriers to development.  

• Mississauga’s average approval timelines across application types improved by 2.4 months in the 2024 study but we continue to rank lower that other municipalities in the study – due in most part to the complex infill and high-rise environment in our City.
• Toronto and Mississauga averaged 25 months for all application types – ranking 12^th and 13^th Barrie and Whitby ranked 1^st and 2^nd at 11 and 12 months respectively.
• With the introduction of Bill 185’s removal of the refund scheme and mandatory pre-application meetings, the City is meeting with housing experts on our Housing Panel and industry representatives on the Mayor’s Housing Task Force to test and find ways to further streamline our processes.

Mississauga, like many other cities across Ontario is seeing a slow down in development applications in the face of high interest rates and a challenging housing construction market.

• The City currently has more than 11,200 units under construction.
• However, from January 1 through August 31, the City approved land use permissions for only 2,266 units and has issued building permits for 1,429 units.