A battle between two key Ford government goals may be coming to a head as a new report suggests that land set aside for jobs in the province is under threat.
Doug Ford has made stimulating the economy to create new jobs and motivating developers to build more homes the cornerstone of his political brand since becoming premier in 2018
The province has invested billions of dollars in attracting industrial and manufacturing jobs, particularly in the electric vehicle sector
Meanwhile, Ontario has torn up local planning rules and briefly carved land out of the Greenbelt as it tries to meet a lofty goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.
A recent shift from the province suggests those two goals — jobs and housing — may be in conflict as the Ford government weighs scrapping rules it introduced only a few years ago to protect employment lands.
Employment lands protected in 2019
A new report from the Toronto Region Board of Trade calls on the province to come up, and stick, with a strategy to continue protecting land that provides around 1.5 million jobs in and around the city.
The report calls for the protection of land specifically zoned for employment.
In 2019, the Ford government announced it was designating large swaths of industrial and commercial land in places like Toronto, Peel and York Region as provincially significant employment zones.
The status meant some areas could only be used for jobs and banned homes from being built there. Instead, factories, office parks and other job-creating uses were encouraged.
The special status was applied to pockets of land around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area where jobs were already clustered together.
The policy was introduced amidst concerns land set aside to create jobs could be converted into housing, which can yield quicker profits. As employment lands dry up, jobs can disappear too.
“What we’ve been having is a steady erosion of those lands — we’ve had a huge, intense pressure for housing supply,” Giles Gherson, president and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, told Global News.
“You’ve got a lot of pressure as developers look to grow housing supply — I understand why — they’ve been pushing at existing manufacturing space.”
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he protections for employment lands appeared to be part of a broader Ford government strategy to boost industrial jobs, in particular.
The government has announced a slew of training programs for different trades and offered financial incentives to tempt massive corporations to bring their operations to Toronto and the rest of Ontario.
Protected employment lands are a key part of that pitch, Gherson said.
He explained that the financial incentive of selling to land speculators and the encroachment of housing into the areas around industrial operations can lead job creators to look elsewhere, particularly in northern parts of the United States.
The jobs created by those lands are hard to replace, he said.
“We’ve lost a fair bit of manufacturing capacity — we’ve replaced it with service jobs,” Gherson said.
“They’re important jobs but they don’t pay what manufacturing does. And that’s why U.S. states are so keen to have our manufacturing jobs and we don’t seem to be very keen to protect them.”
Ontario considers scrapping protections
A few years after it introduced the protections, however, the province appears to be ready to abandon its policy as it faces an uphill battle to build new homes.
New planning policies unveiled earlier in the year and currently under review by the province removed the provincially significant employment lands entirely.
Instead, the province is considering relying on zoning orders from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to protect some land in specific circumstances.
“The board has concerns these changes will significantly weaken provisions meant to protect critical employment lands and jobs,” the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s newly released report said.
“These changes are likely to increase speculation on employment lands that currently do not allow housing.”
The report suggests removing protections for employment lands could increase the number of developers speculating on industrial land.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing told Global News the province is currently reviewing feedback to its planning changes, including removing provincially significant employment zones.
“Ontario is becoming the number one jurisdiction for businesses, jobs, and newcomers,” the spokesperson said.
“We will continue working closely with our municipal partners to build complete communities and align land supply with its best use. This includes protecting key lands for employment and supporting economic growth, as well as building the homes critically needed to address our housing supply crisis.”
Calls to reconsider
When Ontario posted its suggested changes online, some were quick to call on the province to think again.
General Motors, for example, said the protected lands helped the company invest and bring jobs to the province.
“The government should proceed cautiously to ensure new policy direction doesn’t conflict with the objectives of maintaining these lands in a condition that supports existing industrial uses and helps attract new critical investment opportunities,” the auto company wrote in its submission.
The Toronto Region Board of Trade is also urging caution and asking Ontario to keep one eye on its employment strategy.
“With accelerating growth, Ontario does not have the luxury of trying to address these issues in siloes,” the report said.
“Conflicting demands for finite land mean the province needs to make difficult decisions to balance these interconnected priorities.”
Gherson said it is key the government finds a way to deliver housing while protecting jobs.
“It’s the two scorpions in a bottle — they’re fighting each other, that’s not what you want to have,” he said.
“If I’m a business, I want my employees, obviously, to have housing, otherwise I can’t attract and retain them. On the other hand, if I’m in a house, if I’m to afford housing in the Toronto region, I kind of need a job.”
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