Ottawa, Ontario Announce $357M in Federal Funds for Affordable Housing

Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser responds to a question during a news conference, in Ottawa, on Dec. 5, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Ottawa and Queen’s Park have forged a $357 million deal under the National Housing Strategy to build affordable housing in Ontario.

The news comes several months after Ontario Premier Doug Ford rejected the province-wide fourplex policy proposed by the federal Liberals, causing a public disagreement between the two levels of government.

Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser and provincial Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra announced May 27 that the ensuing negotiations were successful and a deal has been reached.

“Solving the housing crisis requires a Team Canada approach,” Mr. Fraser and Mr. Calandra said in a joint statement. “We will continue to work together, along with our municipal partners, to make sure the people of Ontario have the homes they need.”

The agreement was reached after Ottawa received the province’s revised action plan, effectively unlocking $357 million of federal funding, the ministers said. The deal guarantees partial funding for Ontario under the 10-year, $82 billion National Housing Strategy agreement.

To secure that deal, Ontario submitted the revised action plan to show which affordable housing projects are currently receiving provincial funding, the statement said.

The resubmitted plan includes new measures to better reflect Ontario’s funding delivery model, “as the only jurisdiction which flows the funds through municipal service managers,” the statement said. The new measures include setting provincial supply targets with service managers, allocating funding toward new projects, establishing annual goals, and implementing “robust data collection and reporting mechanisms.”

Ontario must also submit an action plan on its housing strategy for 2025-2028 by Dec. 31, 2024 to be eligible for additional federal funding.

Fourplex Resistance

The premier called Ottawa’s proposed policy a “massive mistake” at a March 21 press conference in Richmond Hill, saying that contractors should not be allowed to build four units on a single property without getting the green light from the municipality.

Mr. Ford has maintained that it should be up to municipalities to decide what type of housing is built in communities.

“I can assure you 1,000 percent, you go in the middle of communities and start putting up four-storey, six-storey, eight-storey buildings right deep into communities, there’s going to be a lot of shouting and screaming,” Mr. Ford said.

“We are not going to go into communities and build four-storey or six-storey buildings beside residents.”

Mr. Fraser criticized the provincial government in an open letter posted to social media not long after Mr. Ford’s press conference, saying the Ford government was jeopardizing the province’s access to the $357 million in funding.

“Should Ontario fail to provide a revised plan demonstrating how it intends to meet its housing targets under the agreement, the province will not receive $357 million intended for affordable housing from the federal government,” Fraser wrote in the March 21 letter addressed to Mr.  Calandra.

“Speaking frankly, the proposed action plan is a disappointment. It shows almost no progress toward reaching the affordable housing expansion target, and proposes to achieve only 1,184 units of the 19,660 required by the end of 2024-25. This leaves 94 per cent of the target to be achieved during the last three years of the agreement, which is not realistic.”

Mr. Fraser originally said no further extensions would be possible after March 31 because Ottawa had already given the province an additional year to revise its plan in 2023. The minister changed his stance, however, after further discussions with the province.