Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ted Hsu says the Liberal Caucus will vote against Bill 60arguing it doesn’t address the housing crisis.
On Oct. 23, the provincial government’s new Bill 60, Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, was tabled by Conservative MPP and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, and has finished its second reading in the Ontario Legislature. The legislation’s meant to speed up construction and infrastructure projects in Ontario by centralizing more authority to the province.
Among its provisions, Bill 60 grants the cabinet greater power to override provincial policy statements, a government-issued document that provides policy guidance on land use. The bill also limits certain municipal powers and introduces changes to the Residential Tenancies Act—a law which governs the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords in Ontario.
The Journal sat down with Kingston and the Islands MPP, Ted Hsu, to discuss the bill and how it might impact students and Kingstonians. Hsu made it immediately clear that the Ontario Liberal Caucus plans to vote against the bill.
“Bill 60 has flaws, and it doesn’t address the housing crisis,” Hsu said. “Ontario isn’t only behind our own target for building housing, the target of 1.5 million homes over 10 years, we’re behind every other province in building housing.”
Hsu shared that there are alternative ways to address the crisis, and that the Ford government is just trying to accelerate the processes in the landlord and tenant board. He argued that lowering development costs, especially for smaller units, could lead to more homes being built.
“But what they’re [the progressive conservative party] trying to do is speed up the landlord and tenant board […] but only the tenants have to give up things,” Hsu said.
The Ford government argues the bill will reduce red tape and help municipalities “build faster.” Hsu agreed that speeding up housing projects is important, but that the government first has to understand why building is slow.
“The important thing is to understand why projects are slow and not try to get around laws, which are meant to protect people,” Hsu said.
Majority of both Hsu’s criticism and public criticism surrounds Schedule 12, which amends the Residential Tenancies Act and changes procedures at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Under the new provisions, tenants could be required to pay rent arrears—overdue rent payments—before hearings can proceed in some cases, and landlords would have expanded options for reclaiming units for personal use.
These include allowing landlords to give tenants 120 days’ notice if they intend to move back into the unit. Currently, landlords, if they wish to take over their unit, must give a 60-day notice and give up one month of rent.
“Every single one of the things in Bill 60 seems to be the tenant giving up something,” he said. “The province could add more resources or more in-person hearings to make things faster and fairer instead.”
For Kingston’s large student renter community, Hsu expressed that the bill could make the system less fair for tenants, including student tenants, as well as landlords. Saying that setting a time standard for resolving cases would be a better solution.
“Everything should be resolved within two months,” Hsu continued, “when you have a fairer system, you help the good guys. You help the good tenants; you help the good Landlords.”
While Bill 60 awaits further readings in the Ontario Legislature, Hsu encouraged students to stay informed about how new housing policies could affect their communities.
Tags
Bill 60, housing, Provincial legislation, Ted Hsu
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