Ontario risks $357M in housing funds without revised plan: feds

Ontario risks losing $357 million in federal funding for affordable housing if the provincial government does not submit a revised action plan to meet its fed‐ eral housing targets by the end of the day Friday, the federal housing minister said.

In a letter addressed to Ontario Housing Minister Paul Calandra on Thursday, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser wrote that On‐ tario's draft action plan for 2022-2025 fails to meet com‐ mitments made to the feder‐ al government in 2018.

"Speaking frankly, the pro‐ posed Action Plan is a disap‐ pointment," Fraser wrote in the letter.

In response to Fraser, Ca‐ landra said that "it is unac‐ ceptable that you would choose to threaten our most vulnerable."

He told the minister that "withholding funding would simply be a punitive measure that will benefit no one."

'Ontario is lagging des‐ perately behind': minis‐ ter

The

federal

government signed the National Housing Strategy (NHS) Action Plan in 2018, a 10-year bilateral housing agreement for the delivery of over $5.8 billion in cost-shared investments in Ontario, the federal letter says.

Fraser wrote that the province's action plan fails to meet commitments of the agreement.

"Ontario is lagging des‐ perately behind all other provinces and territories," he said.

In his response, Calandra said the economic landscape has shifted since the 2018 agreement, citing the rising costs of building materials, supply chain disruptions, gaps in the labour market and higher interest rates.

The provincial minister al‐ so wrote that Ontario's social housing stock is the oldest in the country and "in the greatest need of repair and renovation"

"By focusing on the repair backlog, Ontario has success‐ fully staved off the risk to both affordability and avail‐ ability of units for tens of thousands of families and overachieved on the NHS re‐ pairs target," Calandra wrote.

Ontario housing minis‐ ter fires back

Calandra said the province has exceeded the overall nine-year repairs target by 170 per cent.

Ontario also has the high‐ est share of households in core housing need compared to other provinces and terri‐ tories of the country, he ad‐ ded.

While the federal NHS al‐ locates funds according to population, Calandra wrote that Ontario's core housing need is at 44 per cent - "well above our population share of 38.5 per cent."

Under the partnership, Ontario agreed to expand the number of new afford‐ able housing units in the province by 19,660 and set annual targets through publi‐ cly available three-year ac‐ tion plans, the letter says.

The province also agreed to report on progress on both the annual and nineyear target, according to the letter.

The federal housing min‐ ister added that the lack of progress in the province "jeopardizes the completion of both Ontario's housing tar‐ gets, and Canada's national target."