Skyline view of downtown Toronto featuring the CN Tower surrounded by modern skyscrapers and buildings.

Provincial Policy

  • Faster Zoning: This act significantly speeds up the planning process by expanding Ministerial authority and introducing "as-of-right" variances, allowing developers to deviate from minor zoning standards without a lengthy Committee of Adjustment process. This reduces risk of municipal delays and empowers the province to force movement on stagnant projects near transit-oriented communities.

  • Permitting Efficiency: Limits the number of studies (noise, traffic, etc.) that municipalities can demand during the "complete application" phase. For industrial developers, this reduces front-end soft costs and prevents municipalities from using "study-looping" as a delay tactic.

  • Digital Permitting: Mandates a centralized digital system for provincial permit tracking. Industrial developers with complex environmental or ministry approvals will see increased transparency and potentially shorter approval cycles for "strategic" industrial builds.

Two Canadian flags hanging outside on flagpoles attached to a building, with modern high-rise buildings visible in the background under a clear sky.

Federal Policy

  • Significant Tax Relief: Allows for 100% immediate expensing of the cost of new manufacturing and processing buildings.

    For a $50M GTA facility, this could save millions in present-value tax costs, making new builds far more attractive for owner-occupiers.

  • Land Competition: This agency is aggressively auditing federal land for "highest and best use." They are working to de-risk and accelerate delivery. In Ontario, this can increase supply competition near transit and urban nodes where federal lands exist. Launched on September 14, 2025, BCH initially operated as a Special Operating Agency within Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) before its planned transition into a standalone federal entity in early 2026BCH was granted an initial capital budget of $13 billion over five years to address the housing crisis through scale, speed, and modern construction methods

Various Canadian banknotes and coins scattered on a white surface, including a 50-dollar red note and a 10-dollar blue note with portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.

Economic Policy

  • 2025 U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods (steel, aluminum, other manufactured exports) and Canadian counter‑tariffs on U.S. goods including building materials and industrial inputs. Contributes to national industrial availability rising and negative/weak net absorption in 2024–early 2025; oversupply plus trade uncertainty lead to a “hard‑landing” risk for industrial. Canada preparing for 2026 CUSMA review; think‑tanks flag risk of difficult negotiations and further trade frictions. Impact: raises construction and operating costs; increases risk premiums for export‑oriented industrial users; encourages nearshoring and more diversified, redundant supply‑chain footprints.

  • Introduces temporary immediate expensing (100% first‑year write‑off) for eligible manufacturing & processing (M&P) buildings first used before 2030; phases down to 75% (2030–31) and 55% (2032–33) then back to normal CCA. Requires 90%+ of floor area used for M&P to qualify (so pure warehouses generally excluded). Impact: materially improves after‑tax returns on new / retrofit manufacturing buildings; strongest effect for owner‑occupiers and long‑hold investors; indirect benefit to industrial campuses that combine production + distribution.

  • Mortgage Cap Increase: The insured mortgage cap was increased to $1.5 million, and 30-year amortizations were extended to all first-time buyers and purchasers of new builds. This is a massive driver for the GTA residential market, as it brings the "entry-level" Toronto home back into the 5% down payment bracket, providing developers with a larger pool of qualified buyers for pre-construction condos and townhomes.