Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Tuesday the creation of the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to help tackle the nation’s housing shortage. The federal government will allocate $6 billion for infrastructure necessary for new housing construction, $5 billion of which is earmarked for provinces and territories, subject to their approval of federal requirements – if they reject the requirements, municipalities will then be able to access the funding, prompting a backlash from provinces such as Ontario and Quebec.
This fund will primarily focus on housing projects that aim to build missing middle homes (eg. duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and multi-unit buildings). The government is also offering a three-year freeze on development charges for cities with more than 300,000 people. This is considered one of the conditions to get cities to agree to build these types of homes.
The first $1 billion is slated to be paid out quickly to municipalities for urgent infrastructure needs. Housing Minister Sean Fraser mentioned that this money would be allocated to shovel-ready projects.
The Liberal government will also be tacking an $400 million to its Housing Accelerator Fund over three years, which it says will help build an additional 12,000 homes.
It’s going to be up to the provinces to negotiate with the federal government to gain access to the funds. Provinces will have until January 1, 2025 to negotiate with the federal government. The deadline for territories is April 1, 2025. Once those deadlines are up, any remaining funds can be distributed directly to cities that request them.
Immediately, some provinces outright rejected the idea. Ontario Premier Doug Ford made it known that his province would not allow fourplexes to pop up everywhere.
The news didn’t exactly go over well in Quebec, either as they were not in favour of having the federal government allocate funds directly to the cities. The argument was that funds should first reach the province and then be distributed across the cities.
This announcement is one in a series of budgetary announcements the government is planning in the run-up to the budget on April 16.
