Federal government makes funding announcement to speed up housing developments
The federal government introduced $6.1 million in funding for the city of Mount Pearl on Monday, Feb. 26, which it says will help accelerate the building of over 180 homes in the municipality.
St. John’s South-mount Pearl MP Seamus O’regan, who is also minister of Labour and Seniors, made the announcement on a snowy morning in the city, flanked by Mayor Dave Aker and MHA for Mount Pearl North Lucy Stoyles.
O’regan said the funds will help the city build about 2,000 new homes in Mount Pearl over the next decade by allowing it to review its municipal plan to reduce exclusionary zoning, to build up more density in areas around public transportation, speed up permitting approvals with new technology, give serious incentives to build affordable housing, look at land that the city currently owns and make it available for housing, and create a special team at city hall whose sole job is to speed up housing developments in the city.
“This is not just a plan to build house, it is a plan to build houses faster and easier,” O’regan said. “This stuff takes time. It’s easy for me to give a speech, but this stuff takes a lot of time and effort to figure out and I really do commend Mayor Aker and all of council and city staff. A lot of work went into it, because you’ve got to make sure now that it makes sense for neighborhoods and communities and the region, and all of that is not easy. It is only possible when governments and politicians from all levels come together, when we are joined together in a common cause.”
Aker said he was thrilled to be there announcing the partnership with the federal government. Speaking with reporters after the announcement, he said the funding, which is administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Housing Accelerator Fund, will help incentivize the creation of 180 housing units that may not have happened without incentives it will allow them to offer.
Aker said the city is seeing its demographics changing and they need to change with it, and this funding will help move that process along.
“We’re looking for housing options for families and the like, so some of the reconsideration here through the municipal plan will result at the end of the day in a new assessment of what the city needs for its housing stock and then we’ll line up with developers,” he said. “One of the questions I get asked the most is, ‘Mayor, we have a piece of land here, what do you think the city thinks we should put there? Is it an apartment building? Is it something from the missing middle? Is it semidetached housing?’ We want to be able to work with everybody to answer those questions.”
When asked when people in Mount Pearl can expect to see this translate into new housing, he said it’s a threeyear plan which will start with the look at the municipal plan and looking at how density could work in the city by changing building and development regulations.
“That’s council’s task for the next six to 12 months, to get that done,” he said. “Then at that point in time, we’ll be working with a new team here at the City of Mount Pearl, who will be working with developers and investors to make it happen. But it has to start with a plan.”