The Brampton in Motion Symposium, hosted by the Brampton Board of Trade, brought together stakeholders, policymakers, and thought leaders to address Brampton’s most pressing housing and transportation challenges. As Ontario’s population continues to grow, Brampton faces both unprecedented demand for affordable family housing and the need to expand and modernize its transportation infrastructure. This event offered valuable insights into the city’s current context, challenges, and actionable solutions in these two critical areas.
Below are some key takeaways from both the morning housing session and the afternoon transportation session:
Addressing Brampton’s Housing Needs: Four Key Priorities
Ontario requires 1.7 million new homes over the next decade, but Brampton is seeing especially high demand due to population growth, immigration, and the presence of international students. The Peel Region in particular, faces a shortfall of family-friendly housing, especially three-bedroom homes suited for young families—a gap that has led many residents to move to more affordable cities across Ontario. This has in turn brought up prices and rents in more remote Ontario locations and has contributed to wider congestion challenges as people are forced to travel in and out of the community for work. To address this issue, Dr. Mike Moffat, one of Canada’s leading housing experts and a key advisor to policymakers at various levels, was invited to share his recommendations. He outlined four main housing priorities:
- Drive Down Costs: Housing costs in Peel Region are pushing young families out of the area. Brampton’s development charges (DCs) on semi-detached homes, for example, are nearly $134,000—more than four times the fees in some smaller cities like Woodstock. DCs are ultimately tacked on to the final price of new homes. The Symposium highlighted steps Brampton could take to lower these charges, such as conducting a Development Charges Background Study and following the lead of other municipalities that have successfully reduced DCs. Because DCs are collected at the building permit stage, additional taxes are baked into DCs because they are passed onto the final price of the home. Additionally, interest is collected on DCs throughout the building of the property. As a result, DCs on semi-detached homes are closer to $160,000. Deferring DC payments until the end of construction rather than at the permit stage could ease up-front builder financing costs. Other strategies include removing the “tax-on-tax” of DCs by assessing DCs as a separate, non-taxable, line-item on new home purchases.
- Streamline Approvals: By simplifying approval processes for projects that align with Brampton’s Official Plan, the city can help developers build new homes faster. Exempting such projects from public consultations and site plan approvals, setting clear timelines for application processing, and allowing concurrent applications were all recommended as ways to expedite housing supply.
- Make Better Use of Land: To maximize land use, Brampton could adopt strategies such as eliminating parking minimums, allowing secondary suites, and enabling higher-density zoning around transit stations. Dr. Moffat also suggested creating minimum height and density standards in areas near universities or transit (something Brampton is currently pursuing), supporting “as-of-right” permissions for multi-tenant housing and stacked townhomes, and repurposing municipal lands for housing development. Though Dr. Moffat suggested “as of right” secondary dwelling units, City Council recognizes that there are inherent challenges with non-compliant rental units, and so this recommendation requires further examination.
- Prioritize Family-Friendly Housing: Family-friendly housing should be a central focus of Brampton’s housing strategy. The city could follow London, Ontario’s lead by allowing four-story stacked townhouses on neighborhood connector streets. Additionally, Brampton could develop senior housing to allow older residents to age in place, which would free up family-sized homes for younger families. Steve Ganesh, Brampton’s Commissioner of Planning Building and Growth Management, also mentioned that he recognizes the need to build more three-bedroom units in Brampton, both in remaining greenfield and in-fill developments.
Enhancing Brampton’s Transportation Infrastructure: Building a Connected Future
Transportation improvements are essential as Brampton’s population grows and its regional economic opportunities expand. The Symposium underscored the critical role of projects like the Hazel McCallion LRT, Queen Street/Highway 7 BRT, and the expansion of Two-Way All-Day GO service on the Kitchener Line in supporting connectivity and economic growth in the region.
- Hazel McCallion LRT: The LRT extension into Downtown Brampton has been a desire for many residents since its defeat in 2015, but it requires a definitive funding commitment for either a surface alignment or tunnel option. Metrolinx estimates a two-year timeline for its due diligence review, but collaboration with City of Brampton staff—who have already completed 30% of the design—could expedite this timeline, aligning it with Brampton’s growing transit demands.
- Queen Street/Highway 7 BRT: Brampton’s growing population highlights the need for the Queen Street/Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, yet delays will inevitably drive-up costs. With each year, this project becomes more expensive, underscoring the importance of a firm provincial commitment to advance east-west transit options within the region.
- Two-Way All-Day GO Service on the Kitchener Line: This line is essential to Brampton’s connectivity to the Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor, but current freight sharing with CN restricts the expansion of all-day, two-way service. Although Metrolinx has made infrastructure advancements, like installing a fourth track from Nickle Street to Black Creek Drive, limited progress on service expansion west of Bramalea has been made. Symposium participates then brough up the desire for a feasibility study to add a fourth track on the Kitchener Line, which would eliminate the need for shared track usage with CN entirely (something that the currently planned three tracks still require) and allows for fully dedicated passenger service.
The Path Forward: A Collaborative Approach to Housing and Transportation
As Brampton looks to the future, the city’s housing and transportation challenges must be met with collaborative solutions and proactive investment. Housing shortages and high costs drive young families away, and insufficient transit limits Brampton’s connectivity and economic potential. Both challenges, however, are solvable with strategic, coordinated action from all levels of government.
Our day ended with an inspiring fireside chat with Associate Minister Graham McGregor who has been credited as the primary advocate at Queen’s Park for securing funding for Riverwalk. He stressed the importance of relating issues to things people care about. He recalled first hearing about flood mitigation and tuning out but hearing that it would result in 12,900 new homes piqued his interest to ultimately champion the issue. This was a lesson in advocacy communication for us all. Combined with the earlier address from Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation and MPP for Brampton South, we were delighted to hear about the Province’s commitment to Brampton on needed infrastructure and recognition that Brampton is one of the most important cities in Ontario.
The Brampton in Motion Symposium underscored the importance of focused, realistic, and collaborative approaches in both housing and transportation. By implementing family-friendly housing policies, streamlining processes, making land use more efficient, and accelerating transportation projects, Brampton can achieve its vision of a connected, inclusive, and vibrant community for current and future residents. This event was born out of our PGR committee and these insights will be returned to the committee for further study. The ultimate outcomes of this study could be to develop policy resolutions for the Canadian and Ontario Chambers of Commerce, explore further research in the form of whitepapers, program future forums, and inform future delegations and letters to elected officials. This work is largely guided by our stakeholder engagement survey called the Business Confidence Index (BCI). This is an annual survey and we are in the midst of another data collection period. If you appreciate events like Brampton in Motion and would like to support our advocacy efforts, please fill out the survey by November 4th! If supporting community advocacy wasn’t enough, you’ll also be entered to win one of five $100 gift cards upon completion.
