Why Toronto has among the slowest housing development approval times in GTA

The City of Toronto has among the fewest planners and some of the longest approval timelines for residential development applications of 18 regional municipalities — factors that contribute to the high cost of housing, according to a new benchmarking study by the home construction industry.

It shows that only Innisfil and Aurora had fewer planners on their municipal staff when measured per 1,000 housing starts. Only Bradford-West Gwillimbury and Caledon surpassed Toronto’s 21-month average approval time. Other municipalities such as Oshawa, Innisfil, Burlington, Oakville and Barrie had average development approvals of nine to 12 months.