Province of Ontario

04/04/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/04/2024 11:50

Ontario Rewards Thunder Bay with More Than $870,000 for Exceeding 2023 Housing Targets

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Thunder Bay - Today, Premier Doug Ford announced that Ontario will be providing Thunder Bay with $870,890 in funding through the Building Faster Fund as the city has exceeded its 2023 housing target, breaking ground on a total of 200 new housing units last year.

"Thunder Bay is getting it done on housing and we are proud to reward them for their success," said Premier Doug Ford. "I'm so proud of Mayor Ken Boshcoff and his council colleagues for exceeding their housing targets last year. My challenge to Mayor Boshcoff 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.

"The City of Thunder Bay is all in on new housing and is working hard to set the stage for additional housing development," said Ken Boshcoff, Mayor of Thunder Bay. "The provincial recognition of Thunder Bay as one of the first cities to achieve its housing target is something of which we are immensely proud. These funds will allow our community to continue to grow, and will help provide the tools we need to build more homes faster."

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.

Quick Facts

  • Ontario is investing historic amounts in housing- and community-enabling infrastructure to get more homes built across the province including the Building Faster Fund and the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund. The province recently announced a new $1 billion Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program as well as a quadrupling of the provincial Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund to $825 million.
  • 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.

Quotes

"Our government is making historic investments in infrastructure to give municipalities the tools they need to ensure that every resident has an affordable place to call home. Thunder Bay and all other municipalities that are on track to meet their housing targets should be proud of the work they have done to get shovels in the ground faster."

- Rob Flack
Associate Minister of Housing

"I'm pleased to see that our government is providing additional funding to the City of Thunder Bay for their hard work in ensuring that their housing targets have been met. Housing is a critical issue for all of Ontario at this time and the provincial incentives are key to making sure our residents can access affordable housing."

- Kevin Holland
MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan