DARTMOUTH: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Dartmouth on Tuesday April 2 announcing a top up of the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund, one of the key measures that will be part of the upcoming Budget 2024 to cut red tape, build more homes, and help communities grow.
Among the measures for the budget, which will be released and announced by Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland on April 16, include:
Topping-up the Housing Accelerator Fund with an additional $400 million, so more municipalities can cut red tape, fast-track home construction, and invest in affordable housing.
Since launching the now $4.4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund last year, the federal government has signed 179 agreements across the country to fast-track more than 750,000 homes over the next decade.
Today’s $400 million top-up will fast-track an additional 12,000 new homes in the next three years.
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- Launching a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to accelerate the construction and upgrading of critical housing infrastructure. This includes water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure to support the construction of more homes. This fund will include:
- $1 billion available for municipalities to support urgent infrastructure needs that will directly create more housing.
- Announcing that, to access long-term, predictable funding for public transit through the federal government’s forthcoming public transit fund, municipalities will be required to take action that will directly unlock housing supply. This includes measures to:
- Eliminate all mandatory minimum parking requirements within 800 metres of a high-frequency transit line.
- Allow high-density housing within 800 metres of a high-frequency transit line.
- Allow high-density housing within 800 metres of post-secondary institutions.
- Complete a Housing Needs Assessment for all communities with a population greater than 30,000.
- $5 billion for agreements with provinces and territories to support long-term priorities. Provinces and territories can only access this funding if they commit to key actions that increase housing supply:
- Require municipalities to broadly adopt four units as-of-right and allow more “missing middle” homes, including duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and other multi-unit apartments.
- Implement a three-year freeze on increasing development charges from April 2, 2024, levels for municipalities with a population greater than 300,000.
- Adopt forthcoming changes to the National Building Code to support more accessible, affordable, and climate-friendly housing options.
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- Require as-of-right construction for the government’s upcoming Housing Design Catalogue.
- Implement measures from the Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights and Renters’ Bill of Rights.
- Provinces will have until January 1, 2025, to secure an agreement, and territories will have until April 1, 2025. If a province or territory does not secure an agreement by their respective deadline, their funding allocation will be transferred to the municipal stream. The federal government will work with territorial governments to ensure the actions in their agreements are suitable to their distinct needs.
PM Trudeau said this is about making homes more affordable by increasing supply and making the housing market fairer – for renters, for homeowners, and for Canadians trying to find a place of their own.
“Growing communities need quality infrastructure in order to build more homes, faster – and we are there to support them with these generational investments,” he said.
More must be done and all of Team Canada – the federal government, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, cities and towns, the private sector, labour, and non-profits – must work together to ensure everyone has an affordable place to call home.
Alongside today’s action to build more homes, we’re protecting renters, delivering stronger public health care, making life more affordable, and creating good jobs, to make sure every generation can get ahead.
The federal government said they will be announcing further action to do this, and especially to build more homes, faster – to ensure no generation is left behind.
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Quotes
“We need more affordable homes, and we need the infrastructure to help build these homes.
That’s why in Budget 2024, we’re building more infrastructure, building more homes, and helping more Canadians find a place to call their own.
This is about fairness ‒ making sure communities have the safe, quality housing they need to get ahead.” – PM Trudeau
“Since we launched the Housing Accelerator Fund last year, we have cut enough red tape to build 750,000 new homes over the next decade.
“It is working, so we are investing another $400 million to build even more homes, faster in more communities across the country. Alongside these essential zoning reforms, we are helping communities build the infrastructure needed to build more homes, by investing $6 billion through our new Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund.
“We are putting homeownership back within reach for every generation, and especially for Millennials and Gen Z.” – Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
“Since launching the Housing Accelerator Fund, we have been working directly with communities across the country to dramatically change how homes are built within them, to ensure that people have the homes they need at prices they can afford.
“There is more work to do, and the announcements made today will go a long way toward ending Canada’s housing crisis and ensuring that more Canadians have a place to call their own.” – Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
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Meanwhile, Conservative Scott Aitchison, the party’s Shadow Minister for Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, said that the announcement was nothing more than a photo op.
“After eight years of Trudeau, rents and mortgages have doubled, middle class Canadians are forced to live in tent encampments in nearly every city across the country, and his inflationary taxes and spending have driven up interest rates, causing more hurt for Canadians,” said Aitchison in a release to media.
“Justin Trudeau’s response has been to create a $4 billion dollar photo op fund which he added hundreds of millions of dollars to today.
“This is the same fund that his own housing minister admits hasn’t built a single home.”
“Today’s photo op won’t result in building the homes Canadians need. Canadians can’t live in Liberal photo ops or announcements.
“Common sense Conservatives will fire the gatekeepers and remove the bureaucracy to build the homes Canadians can afford.”
