Vaughan Prosperity
Building businesses, homes, infrastructure, and futures, Vaughan is growing forward. Business in Vaughan
With available employment lands, busy border crossings, post-secondary institutions, multimodal transport, and a ready workforce, Vaughan is primed to grow. The City has attracted significant new business and created new employment. To support the growth, municipal government in this term must focus on attracting business and on creating an environment that is attractive to business. Better Transit
It is vital that work be pursued, and seen as the first step on the road to a better public transport network for Vaughan. Further, there are several other near-term policies for transit that the next governments of Vaughan could implement, including investigating demand-responsive transit services using ride-hailing technology. We also urge transit authorities to release ridership data that could be analyzed to make better use of limited resources and thus better serve the ridership and consider releasing ridership data as open data. Housing in Vaughan
There are over thousands households in Vaughan in core housing need, including thousands with children. These households are living in homes that are unsuitable, inadequate, or unaffordable, and whose income is insufficient for adequate and safe housing in their community. Vaughan needs more homes, and municipal government must create an environment where more homes can be easily and affordably built. Yes In My Back Yard
Vaughan needs champions for development, especially more intensive development of multi-unit structures. More than two-thirds of Vaughan ’s current housing inventory is in single-detached homes. These are expensive, land-intensive, difficult to deliver services to, and usually not made for rental. Vaughan will need more row houses and apartments, and municipal governments willing to approve these projects. Develop the Missing Middle
Apart from single-detached homes and apartment buildings, there are easy ways to build “gentle density” which increases the housing stock without changing the character of a neighbourhood, such as second suites and garden suites. While the Province has mandated that these be built by right, municipalities must not stand in the way with bylaws that make implementing these solutions difficult or impossible. Residential, commercial and industrial landowners must all be allowed and encouraged to make better use of their land and to expand within their footprint. Pilot Development
To make housing more affordable and to make better use of our land and resources, we need to build up. This will inevitably change the character of neighbourhoods. We encourage municipal governments to develop pilot projects that will show the best way to accomplish this while preserving standards for current residents. Build for All
Vaughan does not just need affordable housing, but all types of housing. Newcomers often have larger and multigenerational households, and the standard 2/3-bedroom unit does not suit them. We need to attract skilled newcomers to alleviate our labour shortage and grow our population, and will need appropriate housing. Many young professionals are also left in the rental market because middle-income housing has been priced out of their reach, and occupy rental units that are needed by lower-income residents. Further, if Vaughan to attract more corporate and government headquarters and grow our economy vertically, it must have higher-end housing to attract those who work in such places.
