Housing Minister Gregor Robertson's refusal to condemn Toronto for walking away from its commitment to legislate sixplexes as-of-right across the city raises concerns about the integrity of federal funding deals with municipalities and could weaken efforts to speed up home construction, critics warn.
Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison says restrictive municipal zoning rules are "one of the biggest barriers to getting homes built," and the federal Liberals must ensure that Toronto and other municipalities honour their commitments to remove burdensome red tape.
"I don't think they realize that really the only influence they have over making those kinds of changes at the local level is money. And so if they're not going to use that money to create that kind of leverage, well then they're just throwing money out the window," he said in an interview on Friday.