VAUGHAN, ONT. \u2013 Industry representatives, staff and board members of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario<\/a> (RESCON), recently held a roundtable discussion with federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson and Canada\u2019s Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli.<\/p>\n The group toured the H+ME Technology Plant in Etobicoke. Afterwards, the minister and secretary of state met with the group for an hour to discuss the challenges facing Ontario\u2019s residential construction sector. The group also had a wide-ranging conversation about initiatives that need to be put in place to spur new residential building, states a release.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n PropTech and ConTech acceleration as well as the state of offsite construction were dominate topics of conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cImmediate bold and concerted action is needed to get more shovels in the ground for housing projects,\u201d said RESCON president Richard Lyall in a statement. \u201cThe residential construction industry is in dire straits and new housing starts and sales are grim. We need to lower development charges, reduce red tape which only adds to approval timelines, and speed up the approvals process. Without a healthy residential construction industry our economy will suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/cc-production-uploads-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tour-2web.png\")