Stouffville — On March 1st, Paul Calandra Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and MPP for Markham-Stouffville, announced Ontario is providing the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville with $2.6 million in funding through the Building Faster Fund after the town exceeded its 2023 housing target, breaking ground on a total of 1,141 new housing units last year.
“I applaud the work being done by Whitchurch-Stouffville and all the other municipalities that have met or exceeded their housing targets and I’m proud to see our community helping lead the province when it comes to building homes,” said Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and MPP for Markham-Stouffville. “Our government is committed to building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031 and I look forward to unveiling the next steps in our plan to build more homes with the release of our fifth housing supply action plan later this month.”
It was great to present Whitchurch-Stouffville with a cheque for $2.6 million through the Building Faster Fund for surpassing its 2023 housing target.
Our government encourages all our municipal partners to get shovels in the ground and build housing faster for hardworking… pic.twitter.com/fGgD3gxS08
— Paul Calandra (@PaulCalandra) March 1, 2024
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.
“In Stouffville, we’re not just building houses, we’re building homes and a community that reflects our town’s unique character,” said Iain Lovatt, Mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville. “We are incredibly grateful for the support from the province’s Building Faster Fund. This support will reinforce our efforts to meet housing targets and create a brighter future for all our residents.”
Any unspent funding from the Building Faster Fund will be made available for housing-enabling infrastructure to all municipalities, including those that have already received funding as a result of reaching their targets, through an application process. In addition, ten per cent – or $120 million – of the Building Faster Fund is being set aside for small, rural and northern municipalities to help build housing-enabling infrastructure and prioritize projects that speed up the increase of housing supply.
“As part of our government’s plan to fix long-term care in Ontario, we’re investing $6.4 billion to build 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care spaces for our seniors to call home,” said Stan Cho, Minister of Long-Term Care. “Last year alone, we broke ground on 416 new long-term care spaces in Whitchurch-Stouffville. With the help of our municipal partners, we’re building long-term care and getting it done for seniors across the province.”
Quick Facts
- New housing starts, new and upgraded long-term care beds, and additional residential units created by renovating or converting existing residential and non-residential buildings are all being considered when calculating if a municipality has reached its housing target.
- In 2023, Ontario reached 99 per cent of its target of 110,000 new homes, which includes housing starts, additional residential units, and new and upgraded long-term care beds.
- Ontario broke ground on 18,992 rental starts in 2023, the highest number of rental starts on record.
- The province saw nearly 10,000 additional residential units created in 2023 – which includes changing single family homes into multi-unit residences or converting commercial office space into residential use – and nearly 10,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds.
- Ontario has introduced significant investments in municipalities to support housing-enabling infrastructure, including $200 million over three years for the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund and the $400 million annual Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund.
SOURCE Province of Ontario
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