How Ontario watered down a landmark housing law as new builds hit the brakes [Video]

The first major piece of housing legislation to emerge from Queen’s Park in the wake of the Greenbelt scandal was meant to be a bill squarely focused on meeting the province’s goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Instead, the new law — tabled by Housing Minister Paul Calandra in April — was delayed by almost a month as key policy measures that could have added thousands of new homes to Ontario’s housing market were unceremoniously scrapped.

Internal government documents and calendars obtained by Global News suggest the measures that were ultimately unveiled fell short of Calandra’s initial vision after a three-week scramble.

Changes, critics believe, that were directly made by Premier Doug Ford.

The bill was titled the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act — or Housing Supply Action Plan Five, internally — and came at a key time for the government.

As Calandra tabled the watered-down law at Queen’s Park, homebuilding was faltering across the province. Ontario’s ambitious …