Mayor seeks options to waive development charges to spur backlog of housing projects in Windsor

A hallway is seen in this undated stock image from Shutterstock.

Windsor’s mayor wants to see what can be done to encourage more developers to move forward with purpose-built housing in the city.

Drew Dilkens issued a directive on March 3 to city administration under Ontario’s strong mayor powers to report to council in April with options on a partial or full exemption from development charges for multi-unit, purpose-built development projects that receive building permits in 2026.

It would focus on developments located anywhere in the city except the Sandwich South planning district.

Dilkens says the report will look at the potential of waiving development charges for projects that are already in the pipeline but are clogged up because the math isn’t making sense.

“Because of the price of land, labour, and building materials right now, and then you add on development charges, the pro formas that these developers need to take to the bank aren’t adding up; they can’t unlock funding. The only tool we have left in our arsenal is the development charge front,” he says.

Dilkens says he wants to be able to consider what it looks like to remove the development charge, just for this year, for projects that receive a building permit in 2026.

“We know that there are many projects that have been approved and have gone through rezoning processes where the contractor is waiting to go, but they can’t make the math make sense,” he says. “We’re at a time where we have an affordability crisis, and we know on the housing front when it relates to affordability, the answer is more supply.”

The overall aim is to support more multi-unit purpose-built rental housing, increase construction activity and the job creation and spinoffs that come with it, and reach goals established by the Ontario government’s Building Faster Fund.

Dilkens says he wants the housing numbers produced in Windsor to put us in a place where we were last year when the city received $5.2 million from the province.

“This is one way that allows us to get there, hopefully collecting the provincial money that would fill the development charges account and making up the fees that we would be waiving to see the housing being built,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s more property tax for the city; it’s more building permit fees for the city, and at the end of the day this is about building more housing in the city that’s affordable.”

The City of Windsor received $5.2 million from the province in 2025 after the city broke ground on just over 2,306 new homes, achieving 213 per cent of its housing targets in 2024.

This funding is aimed at helping the city build more homes and community infrastructure to continue towards its commitment of building 13,000 new homes by 2031.

The provincial Building Faster Fund was announced in August 2023 and is a three-year, $1.2-billion program designed to encourage municipalities to speed up the housing construction process and get more homes built faster.

Ontario committed to building 1.5 million new homes across the province by 2031.