Can politicians’ promises, plans and programs really fix the housing crisis? It’s an important question to ask in the face of Ontario’s dismal housing performance so far this year.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised two years ago that his province would build 1.5 million homes over a decade. In the first half of this year, just 36,371 new homes were started in Ontario urban centres with populations greater than 10,000 people according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). That’s down 14 per cent from last year and the most recent numbers are troubling. In June of last year, 10,114 new homes were started. This year the figure was just 5,681.