Ontario’s failure to meet housing target, risks millions in funding, Ottawa warns

Premier Doug Ford’s failure to meet federal affordable housing targets is jeopardizing $357 million in funding from Ottawa, Housing Minister Sean Fraser warns.

 

But Queen’s Park counters it is being treated unfairly because its affordable housing stock is the oldest in Canada, meaning repairs to existing units have come at the expense of building new ones.

 

In an embarrassing revelation that emerged as Ford rewards municipalities for achieving provincial targets for new home construction, it turns out his own government is “lagging desperately” on its own objectives.

 

“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,” wrote Fraser in a letter to provincial Housing Minister Paul 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,” the minister wrote Thursday night.

“This leaves 94 per cent of the target to be achieved during the last three years of the agreement, which is not realistic,” he said, stressing the “bilateral funding will lapse and the impact this will have on Ontarians in housing need will be devastating.”

 

Fraser has given the province until the end of the month and “no further extensions are possible” because Ottawa already gave Ontario an additional year to revise its plan in 2023.

 

But Calandra said “it is unacceptable that you would choose to threaten our most vulnerable with ($357 million) in cuts.”

 

“Ontario respectfully expects to be treated by the federal government as the true and equal partner,” said Calandra on Friday.

 

“Withholding funding would simply be a punitive measure that will benefit no one, from jeopardizing the approximately $20 million commitment to the city of Toronto to address asylum seeker inflows, to impacting Ontario’s fiscal plan as we have already covered the federal share of approximately ($357 million) in … funding for 2023-24,” he said.

The provincial minister pointed out “the economic landscape has shifted drastically with the rising costs of building materials, supply chain disruptions, gaps in the labour market, and most of all, higher interest rates” since the 2018 agreement on the targets.

 

Calandra also emphasized the province has Canada’s oldest affordable housing stock and “by focusing on the repair backlog, Ontario has successfully staved off the risk to both affordability and availability of units for tens of thousands of families and overachieved on the … repairs target.”

 

“Given the age of Ontario’s stock, focusing on creating new supply while limiting ourselves to meeting just the 20 per cent repairs target set out in the bilateral agreement would amount to gross negligence on our part,” he said.

 

“The people of Ontario deserve the same treatment as other Canadians. I am asking that the federal government treat Ontario the same as it does British Columbia when it comes to counting units.”

 

Their war of words comes as Ford has been criss-crossing Ontario handing out cheques to mayors for achieving provincially mandated municipal housing targets.

 

On Friday, the premier gave Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath $17.6 million for breaking ground on 4,142 new units last year.

 

“Hamilton is getting it done on housing and we are glad to reward them for their success,” said Ford.

 

Last month, he gave Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow $114 million after her city started 31,656 new homes in 2023.

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star