Doug Ford’s Conservatives admit that they won’t be able to build 1.5 million homes by 2031

Doug Ford’s government has admitted in internal documents shared by Global News that it will not fulfill its 2025 election promise of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031. A handwritten note from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, written between October and December of 2024, says, “1.5 million homes not reach target, more context.” The note goes on to add that there is “not enough time” for Indigenous input and “no promise to build more homes faster—careful how [we] promise.”

Since the promise to boost housing was made, housing starts have actually dropped in Ontario, down about three per cent this May compared with the same time last year, according to data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. As for Toronto, the city’s housing starts dropped 12 per cent during that time, and the condo market is currently struggling from a glut of inventory and low demand.

From January to May, the province said it saw 26,084 total housing starts, a paltry fraction of the 175,000 starts per year needed to reach the 1.5-million goal. Put another way, 42 per cent of the year has passed, and Ford’s government has achieved only 15 per cent of its target.

In October of 2025, Housing Minister Rob Flack held a press conference on the issue. When asked whether his government could meet its construction promise, Flack said that he was committed to getting shovels in the ground quickly but conceded that the conditions were difficult. “We’re in a housing crisis. We get it,” he said.