Ontario Construction News staff writer
The City of Ottawa’s newly formed Housing Innovation Task Force held its first meeting April 8 at Bayview Yards, bringing together city officials and building industry leaders to look for new ways to build more housing, faster and more affordably.
“I was excited this week to launch the Housing Innovation Task Force, a group of industry leaders and experts who will make recommendations to the city on cutting red tape, streamlining processes, shortening approval times, and eliminating other barriers to building more homes,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said in a newsletter after the meeting. “The task force is expected to generate ideas and provide expert advice on streamlining development approvals, identifying policy incentives for housing construction, and unlocking the potential of publicly owned lands to boost supply.
“Members will also work with federal and provincial partners to support housing initiatives.”
Brendan McGuinty, of the Ottawa Board of Trade, and Debbie Stewart, the City’s General Manager of Strategic Initiatives, will co-chair the group.
The task force includes representation from the development sector, including affordable housing stakeholders. Members are:
- Jen Arbuckle, Building Owners and Managers Association
- Melissa Cote, Taggart Group
- Neil Malhotra, Claridge Homes
- Murray Chown, Novatech Engineering Consultants
- Cliff Youdale, Ottawa Community Housing Corporation
- Mary Jarvis, Canada Lands Corporation
- Kevin Murphy, Mattamy Homes
- Miguel Tremblay, Fotenn Planning
- Barry Hobin, Hobin Architecture Inc.
An internal city working group will support the task force and respond to questions as work progresses. staff are expected to report back with recommendations to a joint meeting of the planning and housing committee and the finance and corporate services committee later this year.