Ford promises $1.8B for housing
Next week’s provincial budget will include municipal funding for roads and other infrastructure
Scrambling due to the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal that has hindered housing construction, Premier Doug Ford is promising new funding to help municipalities build infrastructure.
Ford acknowledged cities and towns need more help from Queen’s Park, which is why Tuesday’s budget will include an additional $1.8 billion for roads and water infrastructure.
“When I talk to mayors and councillors, I hear time and time again, it’s a lack of infrastructure that is one of the biggest barriers to getting more homes built,” the premier told reporters at a construction project in Richmond Hill.
The money is over and above the $1.2-billion “building faster fund” unveiled last year that rewards municipalities for getting homes built.
“Altogether, our government is investing $3 billion in housing-enabling infrastructure and I think that’s probably the most I’ve ever heard in the history of this province,” he said.
Asked about a Star report Wednesday that the budget would also include money for a York University medical school at the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital site, near Major Mackenzie Drive and Highway 400, Ford grinned.
“Stay tuned — that’s what I say about the funding,” the premier said.
“But let me talk about medical schools that haven’t been built in years,” he said, pointing to the new medical school in Brampton, run by Toronto Metropolitan University, that will open next year with 80 undergraduate and 95 postgraduate spots.
There are currently six medical schools in the province: at the University of Toronto, McMaster, Western, Queen’s, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the University of Ottawa.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy stressed his spending plan would tackle Ontario’s labour needs on a number of fronts.
“It’s not just about building a new medical school or homes or a highway, it’s about making sure we invest in people so that we can get these things done,” said Bethlenfalvy.
But the medical school plan comes as Ontario’s universities and colleges are in desperate need of more money due to a five-year undergraduate tuition freeze and a federal cap on international students.
York University, which is dealing with labour strife from unionized workers, was recently cited by the province’s auditor general as financially sustainable, but saddled with a $600-million debt and six of its 10 faculties operating at a loss.
Although Ford recently gave postsecondary institutions a three-year, $1-billion emergency aid package, it was less than half of what the government’s own expert panel had recommended.
Municipalities are also howling for more cash, which is why the premier came through with the $1.8-billion fund over three years. Details about eligibility will be announced later this year.
While high interest rates and a shortage of construction workers has hampered housing starts, the Progressive Conservatives have been hobbled by the Greenbelt fiasco that has caused uncertainty in the sector.
In 2022, Ford’s Tories removed 7,400 acres from the environmentally sensitive Greenbelt to build housing.
But separate reports last summer from the auditor general and the integrity commissioner found certain developers with PC connections were “favoured” in an unusual process that is now being investigated by the RCMP.
Ford cancelled the land swap last September amid public outcry and plunging polling numbers — and just before the Mounties’ criminal probe began.
Despite the housing crunch, on Thursday the premier shot down a proposal by Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie to allow fourplexes across Ontario.
“I heard that announcement from Bonnie Crombie and I can assure you 1,000 per cent, you go in the middle of communities and start putting up four-storey, six-storey, eight-storey buildings … there’s going to be a lot of shouting and screaming,” said Ford.
“That’s a massive mistake. We are not going to go into communities and build four-storey or six-storey buildings beside residences like this,” he said, gesturing toward the homes being built nearby.
“It’s off the table for us. We’re going to build homes, single-dwelling homes, townhomes, that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Crombie, a former Mississauga mayor, said that suggests Ford’s Tories “aren’t serious about building the housing Ontario needs” and are rewarding not-in-my-backyard opponents to development.
“This is a NIMBY government that only cares about looking out for their rich friends and well-connected insiders,” she said. “Ontario’s Liberals will allow fourplexes to be built as-of-right provincewide.”
Although the Tories have legislated triplexes across Ontario, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra conceded the initiative for basement apartments and garden suites has not been very successful.
“We’ve had … 21,000 units on the as-of-right three program, so we have to do a heck of a lot better,” said Calandra, emphasizing triplexes and fourplexes are not a panacea to a province-wide housing shortage.