Should be truly red-faced: Ontario housing starts fall, and they could drop again [Video]

The Ford government is, again, painting a gloomier picture for housing construction in Ontario than it had originally projected, revising down already low estimates it published at the beginning of the year.

The Fall Economic Statement, tabled on Wednesday, shows the government is expecting housing starts to fall below expectation every single year until 2027, as home building grinds to a halt.

While the government originally projected nearly 88,000 housing starts in 2024, the latest update shows the government is now projecting 81,000 starts — falling well below the government’s own target of 125,000 in 2024.

In 2022, the government announced it planned to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031. To hit that goal, it needed an average of 150,000 new housing starts every year.

The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, which counts housing starts, defines the term as when concrete is poured on the project. Municipalities, however, dispute the CMHC’s data suggesting …