According to the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), municipalities in Ontario are taking too long to process site plan applications, delays which cost the province $3.5 billion a year, These delays also result in lost property tax revenue the longer the properties sit vacant or underutilized. As these delays persist, they can also cost the homebuyer, who could be on the hook for higher development charges passed along from the developer. The recently released report undertaken by Altus Group on behalf of OAA outlines that municipalities...

An iconic shopping centre in Montreal’s east end is set to undergo a $2.2 billion transformation that will be facilitated without disrupting commercial activity, though some stores will be relocated to allow construction to proceed. Place Versailles will become a neighbourhood of its own with 5,805 housing units, including 979 social housing units, rental and condominium units, and senior residences, as well as offices, a hotel, three public parks, an elementary school, community facilities, and a multifunctional public square, taking its...

A $2 billion repair job on the leaky Delaware Aqueduct located north of New York City that supplies nearly half of the city’s water is expected to take a few more years to complete, as it was paused recently due to drought conditions which lowered levels in all the city’s reservoirs. The leak is losing up to 35 million gallons per day, much of it beneath the Hudson River. The timing of the work on the aqueduct—which is the longest tunnel in the world and carries water for 85 miles from four reservoirs in the Catskill region to other...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has requested that Prime Minister Mark Carney support his priorities for the province, which include strengthening infrastructure, accessing critical minerals including those in the Ring of Fire, building an electric vehicle supply chain, and enacting bail reforms. This follows a March meeting with provincial premiers where Prime Minister Carney asked them to identify “nation-building projects,” which Ford has noted would be achieved with an infrastructure investment to build a tunnel under Highway 401, which would...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced a new, shorter timeline for the planned environmental review of the Line 5 tunnel project, the first time-specific details about the project that have been announced. The environmental review has been expedited under a national energy emergency declared by President Trump and as such the project could be permitted by the fall, months earlier than expected. The draft environmental review will be released by the Army Corps on May 30, at which point the public can comment, though under the new...