Medicine Hat application to federal housing grant funding denied

The City of Medicine Hat’s application to Ottawa’s housing accelerator fund has been declined, a release from city hall stated late Monday.

That comes as the city’s own incentive programs for local development are expected to be released this month.

“We will be regrouping to see how we can still look to implement some of the objectives identified in our application to ease our housing shortage,” Pat Bohan, managing director of development and infrastructure, said in a statement. “Without these grant funds, we’ll need to carefully plan and manage expectations around timelines, and be innovative in our approach.”

Medicine Hat applied to the program in September 2023, stating the federal funding could be used on nine areas to ease development. Those included land acquisition, offsetting servicing costs of new developments, providing pre-approved building plans to add residential units in backyard suites and other projects, and supporting infill development, “urban villages” and corridors as outlined in the 2019 land-use bylaw updates.

In mid-February, federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced nearly $14 million in support for small- to mid-sized cities in Alberta.

That included $1.6 million for housing initiatives in Bow Island and $528,000 in Duchess, among successful applications for Banff and Sylvan Lake.

The federal government expects the specific grants to spur the construction of 400 new housing units in the short term and 3,100 in those locations over the next decade.

Local officials said they will continue to seek out grant funding from other levels of government to alleviate pressure in the housing market.

“We’ll be watching closely for grant opportunities to support these initiatives,” added Bohan.

“We know this is a growing challenge in our community, and we are committed to be an active partner in finding solutions.”