Feds committed to affordable housing: MP
St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle says the federal government will find ways to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to build affordable housing in Ontario if it is unable to reach an agreement with the province.
“Rest assured, there is no scenario under which the federal government intends to change its decision to invest these funds in affordable housing in Ontario,” said Bittle, parliamentary secretary for Housing Minister Sean Fraser.
“If the province is unable to satisfy the terms of our housing agreement, we will find alternative means to invest the same funds through other channels that will build more affordable housing in communities across Ontario.”
Bittle was responding to Niagara Regional Housing concerns about a letter Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra sent the local agency on March 25, warning that the federal government is cutting $355 million in funding to support affordable housing in the province.
Calandra’s letter was presented during Tuesday’s Niagara Region public health and social services committee meeting. It said the funding cut stems from a disagreement with Ottawa regarding allowing Ontario to count 11,529 community housing units toward its target of building 19,660 rent-assisted units as part of its National Housing Strategy.
“In doing so, they are refusing to recognize the important contributions made by Ontario’s service managers to grow the provincial community housing stock while balancing other critical housing priorities, including the significant repair backlog,” Calandra wrote.
He said the situation is forcing the provincial government to revisit the way it funds service managers to demonstrate greater progress against meeting targets, and directly impacting “our ability to provide service managers with the
Ontario’s stock of social housing units is among the oldest in the country
autonomy and flexibility they need to address local housing priorities.”
Bittle said the federal government’s housing agreement with Ontario includes a commitment to share the costs of a $5.8-billion investment to create the new affordable homes by 2028.
“But to deliver this funding in partnership with Ontario, they need to demonstrate that funding provided will actually result in housing getting built,” Bittle said.
“Unfortunately, Ontario initially submitted a plan that failed to meet its housing commitments.”
He said the federal government will approve a revised plan from provincial officials “on the condition that they demonstrate by September how they will meet their full housing target.”
The province has yet to agree to the conditional approval.
If an agreement cannot be reached, Bittle said the federal government “will have decisions to make in the coming days on the path forward when it comes to the delivery of this funding.”
“We need all levels of government at the table with us to solve the housing crisis,” Bittle said.
Calandra criticized the federal government plan in his letter, because of its “singular focus on achieving a new supply target while adhering to a low repairs target.”
He said Ontario’s stock of social housing units is among the oldest in the country, “and in the greatest need for additional investment in repairs and renovations.”
He cited a report by Housing Services Corp. published in January that said about 30 per cent of 86,000 units it reviewed were “at risk of being in critical condition by 2035.”
Calandra said he has asked the federal housing minister to consider revising the housing strategy to address the need for increased housing while continuing “to support the financial and physical viability of the social housing stock over time, while also respecting the independence and autonomy of our service managers.”
Locally, many of the more than 3,000 social housing units run by Niagara Region are more than 50 years old, said Niagara Regional Housing chief executive officer Cameron Banach on Thursday, while discussing emergency repairs required at a building in Beamsville.
In a memorandum provided during the public health and social services committee meeting, Banach said meetings are ongoing between the province and the federal government.