Claridge exec Malhotra hopeful new housing task force will ‘produce some results’

David Sali

April 4, 2025

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A prominent Ottawa homebuilder says he’s confident a new task force aimed at speeding up the municipal housing approval process will “produce some results” as the city seeks to kickstart new home construction. Approved by council in late January, the new housing innovation task force includes representatives from the private sector and experts from the development industry. The committee’s goal is to come up with solutions designed to get more homes built faster. The task force will make recommendations to city staff, with a report expected to be presented to a joint meeting of the planning and housing committee and the finance and corporate services committee later this year. Claridge Homes chief financial officer Neil Malhotra says the initiative is a clear sign the city is willing to work with developers to ease the housing crisis. “I think it’s going to be a useful forum for everyone to work through some ideas and try and improve housing affordability and speed of process and try and find some ways to help accelerate housing (construction) in the city,” said the veteran developer, one of nine housing industry leaders named to the task force. While most members of the committee represent private, for-profit developers, Malhotra said it will look at ways to spark new construction of housing aimed at all income levels. “This is not about the homebuilders,” he said. “At the end of the day, we simply need more housing built faster in the city of Ottawa – whether it’s good ideas on how more affordable housing gets done, whether it’s how to expedite (construction). It’s not about the private sector. It’s just finding (ways) to get things moving, where traditionally they’ve been perhaps a little bogged down.” The city said Thursday the new advisory body will be chaired by Ottawa Board of Trade chair Brendan McGuinty and Debbie Stewart, general manager of the City of Ottawa’s strategic initiatives department. In a memo to the mayor and councillors, Stewart said the task force will provide “ideas, advice and expertise” to city staff on “new and innovative ways” to speed up development approvals and streamline regulatory processes; identify and implement financial and policy incentives for housing and affordable housing development; encourage the “strategic use of publicly owned lands to increase housing supply”; and work with federal and provincial governments to support housing initiatives. Besides Malhotra, McGuinty and Stewart, the other members of the task force are:

Jen Arbuckle, broker at Metcalfe Realty and chair of the board of directors at the Ottawa Building Owners and Managers Association
Melissa Côté, director of land development at Taggart Group
Murray Chown, director of planning and development at Novatech Engineering Consultants
Cliff Youdale, chief development officer at Ottawa Community Housing Corp.
Mary Jarvis, senior director of real estate at Canada Lands Corp.
Kevin Murphy, vice-president of land development at Mattamy Homes
Miguel Tremblay, partner at Fotenn Planning
and Barry Hobin, founding partner of Hobin Architecture.

Malhotra said the committee represents a “fairly good mix of experts” from across the city’s development sector. “From what I’ve seen, I think you’ve got a good range of different perspectives, people doing different types of housing,” he explained. The establishment of the task force comes as the city is struggling to meet its housing construction goals. Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe pledged during the 2022 municipal election that the city would build 100,000 homes in the next decade. But the nation’s capital recorded just 7,900 housing starts in 2024, down 15 per cent from the previous year, prompting Sutcliffe to announce the creation of the new task force. “We want to build more homes and we want to build them faster,” he said during an address to the Ottawa Home Builders’ Association in January that called on the city and the development community to “embrace bold ideas to improve and shorten the approval process.” Sutcliffe suggested a number of ideas could be worth exploring, such as deferring development charges, introducing incentives for transit-oriented development and looking at new funding models like lease-to-own, vendor take-back mortgages and issuing bonds. Malhotra said Friday it’s still too early to speculate on what recommendations the task force might make. “We haven’t even had our first meeting yet,” he said. “Let’s toss around some ideas and knock them back and forth and see where there are some possible wins here for the city and how the process can improve.” The longtime executive said he senses a greater urgency to cut red tape and break down barriers to building homes than he’s seen in the past. “I think there’s a will in town to see industry and the city not being at odds and try to find some ways to improve things together,” Malhotra said. “I’m glad the mayor’s office has made this a priority, and hopefully it will produce some results. I think everybody’s fully on board to try to find common ground and make things work better.”