Two of the biggest expenses faced by Canadian households are housing and transportation. The housing shortage and affordability crisis impacts every Canadian – especially those with lower-incomes relying heavily on public transit.

But, “there is a mismatch between planning for housing and planning for transit. In Canada, these two are typically planned separately.”

This is the sentiment of a recent study by the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA). Marco D’Angelo, president of CUTA, says, “(They) are intertwined, and their solutions must be intertwined as well.”

The problem

CUTA’s study argues there’s plenty more that can be done to better integrate planning for Canadian housing and public transit infrastructure. For example, more transit-oriented development opportunities can be reaped.

The report notes, “The main problem with this approach is that it often results in new housing developments with little to no transit services, and/or new transit projects that do not come with additional residential density needed to increase ridership and maximize the investment in transit.”

Recommendations

In an effort to mitigate these issues and maximize integration in planning, CUTA came up with 17 policy recommendations under five different themes:

1. activating land for transit-oriented development
2. developing more housing near existing transit
3. ensuring inclusivity with affordable housing and rentals
4. streamlining approval processes
5. prioritizing investment that grows both housing and ridership

Around the fifth theme, there’s a proposed federal Permanent Public Transit Fund for 2026 that aims to improve integration of Canadian housing and public transit, which the federal government indicates will consider housing supply by incentivizing municipalities and provinces to increase supply.

Case in point

For example, to meet anticipated record population growth, Ottawa is doing this with zoning for properties adjacent to its new LRT transit station.

“The implementation of LRT is transformative for Ottawa, and the City’s new Official Plan has prioritized 15-minute communities to complement this,” says Avison Young vice president, Gillian Burnside, when speaking of the company’s proposed Falcon Ridge Village. This is the city’s only development-ready residential lands near rapid transit.

A call to action

CUTA argues that municipalities need to enable density and speed up the review and approval of transit-oriented development applications. The association notes that municipalities can be slow with rezoning land affected by major investment in public transit infrastructure to be approved for more residential and workplace density.

“Sometimes this is intentional, as municipalities want to negotiate fees, concessions, or amenities from developers who apply to upzone. However, the result is that additional transit-adjacent housing supply is delayed by several years,” the study says.

It also points out that many local governments keep supply down in order to keep land values up, letting them create a bigger revenue stream from development.

“Our report is not just a checklist, it’s a call to action,” says D’Angelo, “With a rising population, and ongoing housing supply and affordability issues, inaction is not an option.”

Read CUTA’s study, including detailed recommendations, here.