As housing starts struggle to keep pace with population growth, panellists at a city-building conference in Ottawa this week urged politicians of all stripes to cut red tape that’s hindering development and provide more support for affordable housing.
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As housing starts struggle to keep pace with population growth, panellists at a city-building conference in Ottawa this week urged politicians of all stripes to cut red tape that’s hindering development and provide more support for affordable housing.
Architect Andrew Reeves, founder and principal partner of local firm Linebox Studios, and Jonathan Westeinde, CEO and founder of Windmill Development Group, sat down for a panel at City Building Summit 2025 on Wednesday at the Rogers Centre.
The panel, moderated by Marant Construction’s Jennifer Cross, spotlighted challenges faced by local developers and what can be done to alleviate them.
With Canadians set to go to the polls next Monday, Reeves said he felt neither the Liberal Party nor the Conservative Party had put much thought into addressing the issues developers are most concerned about.
“They’re only focusing on the easiest issues to solve,” he said. “Look at the big picture.”
Westeinde said affordable housing is in high demand in Ottawa, but developers are not receiving the support needed to make it happen.
On the political front, he said the issue may headline the major parties’ platforms, but “there aren’t a lot of details, so it’s hard to know.
“The good thing is that both parties are prioritizing housing and we’ve got programs that could drive the market,” he said. “But, you know, it remains to be seen.”
Both panellists argued that lengthy municipal zoning approval processes and “unnecessary” bureaucracy are stymieing home construction in the nation’s capital.
“You get up every day really wanting to do positive things, but you just can’t,” Weistende said.
When it comes to addressing those problems, the panellists said Ottawa has some unique challenges.
Westeinde said that while city hall is the primary driver for streamlining development approvals, he noted that federal agencies such as the National Capital Commission have jurisdiction over certain parts of the region, complicating efforts to make the process more efficient.
He said a lack of collaboration between levels of government, and between governments and developers, creates unnecessary roadblocks for developers.
“It’s been in the headlines the last few years, the housing crisis, and no level of government is saying they’re not driving for that,” he said. “But it’s almost like there’s friction between governments. What I can say on the ground is that it has largely created a slowdown, not a speed-up, because it’s not collaborative.”
At the same time, Cross said the tariff war with the United States has driven home the need to eliminate barriers to trade and competition within Canada’s borders, which could ultimately benefit the local development industry.
“The conversation is shifting towards radical collaboration across every sector,” she said. “We’re waking up to the reality that the traditional silos and competition that defined much of the work we do need to be dismantled in favour of unity.”
