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Getting Informed on Ontario Legislation Impacting Housing

For those that care about housing equity, 2025 has been a year that’s impossible to ignore


Many wonder about the roots of the housing crisis.
Many wonder about the roots of the housing crisis.

This past year, several pieces of Ontario legislation have been introduced, and often passed, with lightning speed. Bills 5, 6, 10, 17, and now 60 each have their own red flags. Together, they paint a picture of a provincial direction that leans heavily toward criminalization, deregulation, and top-down authority.


Below is a breakdown of what each bill does, why communities are concerned, and how you can stay engaged.


Social Planning Toronto released a June 2025 Newsletter with excellent analysis on Bills 5, 6, 10, and 17. We thank them for their work and use resources compiled by them below.


Bill 5: Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025

Ministry: Minister of Energy and Mines

Minister: Hon. Stephen Lecce: stephen.lecce@pc.ola.org


Resources to Learn More:


Why it Matters:

Bill 5 hampers the ability of municipalities to enforce local green building standards and environmental protections. This reverses decades of progress made toward climate resilience. Even more troubling is the bill’s ability to create “special economic zones,” which would allow companies to bypass:

  • Indigenous consultation requirements

  • Worker protections

  • Environmental safeguards


What's Next?

Bill 5, like others discussed below, has received Royal Assent, and is now officially an Act or law in Canada. What's next is the process of developing regulations, or detailed rules that define how laws are to be applied and enforced in practice. This involves stakeholder consultation, including with the public, which makes it important to continue advocating for equitable housing-related policy.


There is currently little discussion of Bill 5, with Bill 60 currently taking most of the media attention. You can monitor for regulations as they are developed here: Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 4 - Bill 5 | ontario.ca


Bill 6: Safer Municipalities Act, 2025

Ministry: Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Minister: Hon. Rob Flack: Rob.flack@pc.ola.org


Resources to Learn More:


Why it Matters:

Bill 6 expands the powers of law enforcement to charge and punish folks that use substances in encampments. The notion of this authority making our municipalities “safer” makes several leaps in assumptions. Criminalizing the behaviour of those using drugs in tents does not target the issue of homelessness, poverty, trauma, addiction, and survival that may have contributed to the situation of finding an individual using drugs in an encampment.


Under Bill 6, police can now:

  • Enter and remove individuals from encampments without a warrant,

  • Act on suspicion that someone has consumed an illegal substance,

  • Arrest anyone who does not comply with an officer’s order to leave,

  • Issue fines up to $10,000 and impose jail time up to six months.


These powers apply even as the province has shut down multiple supervised consumption sites, leaving many people with nowhere safe to go.


What's Next?

Bill 6 has received Royal Assent and is now law. Advocacy is needed to support housing equity. You can monitor for regulations as they are developed here: Safer Municipalities Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 5 - Bill 6 | ontario.ca.


Bill 10: Protect Ontario Through Safer Streets and Stronger Communities Act, 2025

Ministry: Attorney General

Minister: Hon. Doug Downey: doug.downey@pc.ola.org


Resources to Learn More:


Why it Matters:

Bill 10 holds landlords responsible if they knowingly permit drug-related activity within their units. On its surface, this may sound like a measure to reduce harm or improve safety. But the language is incredibly vague.


ACTO (Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario) and the CCHR (Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation) have raised several concerns:

  • The bill encourages evictions based on suspicion, not evidence

  • It undermines renters’ rights to privacy and security

  • It burdens non-profit and supportive housing providers

  • It may discourage landlords from offering housing to people who use substances

  • It risks pushing more people into homelessness, feeding back into the cycle targeted by Bill 6


Rather than invest in prevention, harm reduction, or stable housing, Bill 10 appears to shift responsibility and liability downstream, onto landlords and service providers, and ultimately onto renters themselves.


What's Next?

Bill 10 has received Royal Assent and is now law. Advocacy is needed to support housing equity. You can monitor for regulations as they are developed here: Protect Ontario Through Safer Streets and Stronger Communities Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 6 - Bill 10 | ontario.ca.


Bill 17: Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025

Ministry: Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Minister: Hon. Rob Flack Rob.flack@pc.ola.org


Resources to Learn More:


Why it Matters:

At a time when Ontario’s housing crisis is at its peak, building more homes faster should be a welcome plan. But Bill 17 prioritizes speed over sustainability, community input, and long-term livability.


Bill 17 accelerates construction of housing, roads, and transit projects by:

  • Streamlining development approval processes

  • Overriding municipal authority

  • Eliminating local green building standards, most notably the Toronto Green Standard


As the Toronto Environmental Alliance points out, weakening energy-efficiency requirements and stormwater-management rules will have costly long-term impacts:

  • Higher energy bills for future tenants and homeowners

  • Increased flood risk

  • Reduced resilience to climate change

  • Environmental costs passed down to municipalities and residents.


In other words, developers may “pay less now”, but communities will pay far more later.


What's Next?

Bill 17 has received Royal Assent and is now law. Advocacy is needed to support housing equity. You can monitor for regulations as they are developed here: Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 9 - Bill 17 | ontario.ca



Bill 60: Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 (most recent!)

Ministry: Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Minister: Hon. Rob Flack: Rob.flack@pc.ola.org


Resources to Learn More:


Why it Matters:

While Bill 60 is still rapidly evolving, the early consensus from experts is that it continues the troubling trend of criminalization, displacement, and expanded government authority over unhoused people and those living in precarious housing.


Advocates recently blew up the phonelines and flooded Premier Doug Ford, Housing Minister Rob Flack, and Attorney General Doug Downey's phone lines stating concerns about the inclusion in Bill 60 to change the law that currently allows for month-to-month tenancies. This strong show of advocacy was a demonstration of the power that our voices possess when joined together.


There are other elements of Bill 60 that are going forward that many advocates remain concerned about. Here are some of the concerns:

  • Acceleration of evictions by shortening notice and payment periods and limiting tenants’ ability to raise defenses.

  • Reduction of tenant protections and LTB discretion by restricting postponements, appeals, and reviews, making hearings less tenant-friendly.

  • Expanding landlord power through persistent late-payment rules, removal of compensation for certain evictions, and a proposed “bad tenant” database.


What's Next?

Want to get involved? Here are two upcoming housing advocacy-related events where Bill 60 will be discussed:


CDH National Housing Day 2025


National Housing Day Rally

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Why These Bills Matter as a Collective

Each of these bills touches a different part of Ontario’s housing system, but together they create a layered ecosystem of inequity:

  • Environmental protections weakened (Bills 5 & 17)

  • Indigenous rights bypassed (Bill 5)

  • Tenant privacy and security threatened (Bills 10, 60)

  • Unhoused and substance-using residents criminalized (Bills 6, 10)

  • Encampment residents targeted again (Bill 6)


Rather than addressing root causes of homelessness and housing insecurity, poverty, income support, lack of affordable housing, lack of mental healthcare, and systemic discrimination, these bills rely on enforcement and deregulation. The concern is the long-term impact on Ontario renters and the homelessness crisis this new legislation will have.


CDH's Recent Research and Blog Posts on Housing:


CDH Blog posts on Housing and Homelessness:

Learning from the Lived Experience Research Project:

Research reports:

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