Paul Calandra

Paul Calandra serves as Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and has taken over the housing delivery challenge that Doug Ford made the centrepiece of his government's mandate. In practice, that means Calandra is the minister who has to translate the 1.5 million homes target into actual building permits, approved subdivision plans, and infrastructure investments — working with municipalities that have varying degrees of enthusiasm for the province's density and development agenda. His approach has combined carrot and stick: municipalities that cooperate with provincial housing priorities receive accelerated infrastructure funding through the Housing Accelerator Fund equivalent; those that resist face the possibility of provincial intervention in their planning decisions. The provincial government has used Ministerial Zoning Orders to override local planning decisions in specific situations — a power that has been used more extensively under Ford than any previous government and that has generated significant controversy, particularly when MZOs have been issued for projects with political connections. Calandra's prior career in federal politics — he served as Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary and in cabinet — gives him political experience at a level that many ministers who go from provincial backbench to cabinet lack. Whether that experience translates into better housing delivery outcomes remains to be seen, because the obstacles to housing production in Ontario are more structural and financial than political.