“Action” is proving to be the operative word in the City of Ottawa’s Housing Action Plan. That was the key takeaway in Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s address at the 2026 Mayor’s Breakfast on Jan. 8, an annual event organized by the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association.
Speaking to a sold-out audience of 220 from the city’s homebuilding and allied sectors as well as several city councillors, the mayor opened his remarks with a rundown of some non-housing-related accomplishments since he took office in 2022. They included cost savings and infrastructure investments while keeping property taxes low in comparison to some other Canadian cities. As more than one audience member noted, this is a municipal election year.
Turning to the subject of most immediate interest to the gathering and quoting from the copy of the Housing Action Plan he held aloft, Sutcliffe said the plan’s goal was “to make Ottawa the most housing-friendly city in Canada.”
The document came out of the work of the city’s Housing Innovation Task Force announced at last January’s Mayor’s Breakfast. Comprised of experts from the development industry, including affordable housing representatives, and the municipality, the task force was mandated to suggest ways the city can reduce barriers and support the delivery of more housing.
At the heart of the Housing Action Plan is the Housing Acceleration Plan, with its own set of objectives ranging from speeding up the housing development approvals process to supporting the growth of affordable housing and downtown office-to-residential conversions.
The city’s Housing Action Plan included 53 recommendations, nearly half of which have already been or are about to be approved, said Sutcliffe.
For example, development charges — fees levied on building projects to help pay for municipal infrastructure and long a bugbear of developers because they increase the upfront price of a home — can now be deferred, without interest, until later in the building process.
The Housing Action Plan, unanimously approved in the fall by city council, also includes changes to the “long list” of studies and reports, such as wind studies and shadow analysis, required for project approval, said Sutcliffe. “Later this month, council will vote to eliminate 13 of those studies… and we’re narrowing the scope of another 13 studies so they are less impactful on the building process. Taken together, we are cutting or streamlining half of all our reporting requirements.”
This month, city council will also approve a new zoning bylaw, said Sutcliffe. Among its provisions: increased density and height where infrastructure, including public transit, supports it.
The mayor also referenced the city’s intention, in partnership with the federal government’s Build Canada Homes program, to build 3,000 new affordable housing units, with construction to start this year.
“This is, quite simply, the most ambitious housing plan in our city’s history,” said Sutcliffe.
A short Q&A session with the audience after the mayor’s speech included a question about whether the federal and provincial governments are doing anything to help reduce development charges, which add up to $65,000 to the price of a new single-family home and are keeping would-be buyers on the sidelines.
Suggesting that it is, to some extent, a matter of which level of government is going to act first, Sutcliffe said, “I think there is a willingness on the part of both the federal and provincial governments to do something about development charges. The question is what and, more importantly when… They need to sort it out amongst themselves and then come to the municipalities and say, ‘‘This is what we’re prepared to do.’”
