Ford Sends $37.5M To Ottawa For Housing

Published 04/05/2024 · Updated 06/10/2024

This is a release from the Ontario government:

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Today, Premier Doug Ford announced Ontario will be providing Ottawa with $37,502,947 in funding through the Building Faster Fund as the city has made substantial progress towards meeting its 2023 housing target, breaking ground on a total of 10,313 new housing units last year.

“This announcement is another clear sign of our government’s commitment to Ottawa, building on last week’s historic new deal,” said Premier Doug Ford. “I’m so proud of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and his council colleagues for making substantial progress toward their housing targets and am glad to reward them for that success. My challenge to Mayor Sutcliffe and to every mayor in Ontario is to get even more homes built in the coming years so we can make life more affordable and keep the dream of homeownership alive for families across the province. We’ll be there to support you every step of the way.”

Announced in August 2023, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2 billion program that is designed to encourage municipalities to address the housing supply crisis. The fund rewards municipalities that make significant progress against their targets by providing funding for housing-enabling and community-enabling infrastructure. Funding is provided to municipalities that have reached at least 80 per cent of their provincially assigned housing target for the year with increased funding for municipalities that exceed their target.

“I’m very grateful to Premier Ford and the Ontario government for this much-needed support,” said Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of the City of Ottawa. “This provincial funding will help Ottawa create the conditions for builders and community agencies to build homes faster. We have an ambitious but achievable target that I believe we can reach by working together.”

The Building Faster Fund includes $120 million for small, rural and northern municipalities to help build housing-enabling infrastructure and prioritize projects that speed up the increase of housing supply. The government has also announced $1.8 billion in support for housing-enabling infrastructure projects as part of its 2024 Budget: Building a Better Ontario.

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