Midrise buildings have more than four stories, but fewer than twelve storeys.  Buildings of six storeys, in particular allow straightforward “stick frame” construction, to be combined with the economies of scale that come with building many units at once, and the cost savings of a modestly-sized building site.

Infill development is development that adds net new homes or workplaces, or built amenities (such as playgrounds) to an existing residential neighbourhood, or commercial, industrial, institutional or mixed use area.  It may involve replacing existing buildings, or adding new ones, on land previously occupied by asphalt, manicured lawns, or other non-natural cover.

All levels of government in Canada have some powers they can use to help create lower-cost housing, and to help stop the squandering of construction capacity that prevents the supply of homes from catching up with demand.  From municipal governments’ power to over local zoning, to the federal government’s power to spend, buy and to develop it’s own land free of provincial controls, every government has a responsibility to do what it can.  However it is provincial governments, that have all the constitutional power required to unilaterally end the housing shortage within their borders- and to ensure that every household has access to a home they can afford.  

Ontario hasn’t been building enough homes because our laws effectively - or explicitly - prohibit the only kinds of development efficient enough to keep up with our needs.  Mid-rise, wood-frame, zero-parking apartment buildings built inside existing neighbourhoods and built up areas, including on currently-lowrise residential streets. That inefficiency meant that even with construction running at full-tilt, it wasn’t converting those inputs into enough homes.  Now with Ontarians less able to pay high prices, the same prohibitions mean that the only kinds of housing capable of being built at a price Ontarians could pay are effectively illegal.  So hardly any housing is being built at all.