The Ontario government is helping enable the construction of more than 500,000 new homes across the province through the first round of investments from the province’s Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund. This first round will see the province invest $970 million in 54 projects across 60 municipalities to help municipalities develop, repair, rehabilitate and expand drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. In response to the high demand for funding, the government is also allocating an additional $250 million for a second round of applications starting on August 14, bringing the total amount in the fund to $1.2 billion.
“Our government’s historic investments in infrastructure are helping to tackle Ontario’s housing supply crisis and get more homes built across the province,” said Premier Doug Ford (photo). “The investments we are announcing today alone will help get more than half-a-million homes built, including nearly 47,000 here in Peel Region. We’re going to keep working with our municipal partners to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more families across Ontario.”
As part of the first round of funding, the province is providing the Regional Municipality of Peel with $35 million to support the expansion of the G.E. Booth Water Resource Recovery Facility. This project will enable 46,784 housing units in the Region of Peel and includes the extension of water systems and installation of new features, such as an aeration tank and filtering systems. Additional projects that have been approved for funding will be announced in the coming weeks.
“By investing in drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities and connecting pipes to land, we are helping municipalities build more homes,” said Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure. “Homes can’t be built without connections to drinking water and wastewater.”
In this year’s budget, the province announced more than $1.8 billion in housing-enabling infrastructure funding through the $825 million Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund and the $1 billion Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program that complements funding announced previously through the province’s Building Faster Fund. In response to the significant demand for investments in water and wastewater infrastructure to enable the construction of more homes and after consulting with municipalities, the province is transferring $275 million from the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program to the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund in order to meet this demand. In addition, the $120 million from the Building Faster Fund that was reserved for small, rural and northern communities is being flowed to these communities through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund.
“When interest rates began to soar and put significant pressure on housing starts, our government focused on making historic investments in infrastructure so that our municipal partners would have the tools in place to unleash development as soon as the Bank of Canada began cutting rates, which Premier Ford has called for repeatedly,” said Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “We have heard loud and clear that infrastructure is the number one obstacle for our partners and we will continue to do everything we can to help them build more homes faster.”
More information about the remaining funding in the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, including eligibility and application intake details, will be announced in the coming weeks.
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