Montreal eases construction rules when it comes to social housing

The City of Montreal is making changes to its housing policies in the hopes that it will make the city more affordable.

Three years ago, Montreal introduced a new bylaw requiring developers to include social, affordable and family housing in new construction.

On Thursday, the city loosened the rules by removing the obligation to contribute to the affordable housing fund for projects with between 20 and 150 units.

"They [developers] are asking us to give them a break to make sure that the mathematics are going well, and that's why we are making some adjustments," said Montreal city councillor Benoit Dorais. "Some of them are temporary. They are done in the difficult context of right now."

The new policy comes at a difficult time for Valérie Plante's administration, which is three years into the bylaw that was supposed to stimulate the construction of more social and affordable housing.

The city says that more than 600 social housing units are planned or are in the pipeline.

It has collected nearly $39 million from developers who preferred to pay a penalty rather than include cheaper apartment units in their projects.

However, inflation and the labour shortage have limited the impact of the bylaw.

The opposition, Ensemble Montréal, says that Plante is avoiding one of the main obstacles in development: red tape.

"They are also talking about all of the bureaucracy that we have in Montreal," said councillor Julien Henault-Ratelle. "Just the delays to receive a construction permit are way too long. In Montreal, it's over 200 days just to receive the permit after all of the analysis by the city, and for promoters, time is money."

The opposition says that until the red tape is eased, developers will build in Longueuil or Laval.

The city, however, maintains that its mixed-use housing bylaw is generally a good one, and it is here to stay.