By Staff
January 15th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington MP,Karina Gould announced today that “With federal funding and federal leadership, we are changing how cities let housing get built in their municipalities. With a greater focus on higher density housing, student housing, homes near transit and affordable housing, we are going to get more homes built for Canadians at prices they can afford.”
The Government of Canada and the City of Burlington announced that they reached an agreement to fast track more than 600 housing units over the next three years. This work will help spur the construction of more than 5,000 homes over the next decade.
The agreement under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), will provide more than $21 million to eliminate barriers to building the housing we need, faster. Burlington’s Action Plan commits to seven local initiatives that support greater density, such as permitting four units as-of-right to encourage the creation of additional housing units on existing residential lots, and exploring opportunities to incentivize the creation of rental housing that is below market housing.
Through its Action Plan, Burlington will also create the Housing Connections Centre, enabling the city to act as a connector and a partner among the various players in the housing system. It will also streamline planning and building approvals processes, explore opportunities for partnerships on public land development, and address municipal infrastructure needs.
The transit hubs are where high density development is expected to take place.
HAF is helping cut red tape and fast track at least 100,000 permitted new homes over the first three years, which cities and regions estimate will lead to the creation of almost 450,000 permitted new homes for people in towns, cities, and Indigenous communities across Canada over the next decade. It asks for innovative action plans from local governments, and once approved, provides upfront funding to ensure the timely building of new homes, as well as additional funds upon delivering results. Local governments are encouraged to think big and be bold in their approaches, which could include accelerating project timelines, allowing increased housing density, and encouraging affordable housing units.
Pam Damoff, Member of Parliament for Oakville North—Burlington and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Consular Affairs) explained: “We’re in a housing crisis and the only way we’re going to solve this challenge is by working together collaboratively and directly with municipalities who know the real needs of their communities. The Housing Accelerator Fund is an acknowledgement that the status quo in how we build homes is no longer acceptable. The City of Burlington has demonstrated leadership in working with our government to get more homes built for our community.”
The City of Burlington’s Action Plan will create major transit station areas; implement a community planning permit system, a land use planning tool to establish as-of-right zoning and site plan permissions that promote intensification in key areas and create more efficient and streamlined development approval process (45 days) in order to create more housing quicker; encourage and support the creation of additional residential units; and consider opportunities to allow for greater density on existing residential lots as-of-right. It will also identify opportunities to incentivize the creation of rental and housing that is below market housing, and build community and partner capacity by creating a Housing Connections Centre.
Launched in March 2023, the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) is a $4 billion initiative from the Government of Canada that will run until 2026-27.
The Housing Accelerator Fund is part of Canada’s National Housing Strategy (NHS), an $82+ billion plan to give more Canadians a place to call home. Progress on programs and initiatives are updated quarterly at placetocallhome.ca. The Housing Funding Initiatives Map shows affordable housing projects that have been developed.
As of September 30, 2023, the Government of Canada has committed over $38.89 billion to support the creation of almost 152,000 units and the repair of over 241,000 units. These measures prioritize those in greatest need, including seniors, Indigenous Peoples, people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and women and children fleeing violence.
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What a bunch of hogwash. First of all Ontario has had an intensification mandate in place going back a number of years. As well if anyone is paying attention much of the housing is along transit routes. Then there is the 5,000 homes at a cost of $21 million over 10 years, or $4,200 per unit that will be peanut buttered over the next 10 years at $420.00 per home per year. This propaganda is not worth the cyber space that was foisted upon us. My favourite phrase has to be “ changing how cities let housing get built” fact of the matter is municipalities have been the roadblock and the feds have zero jurisdiction. How about changing how federal government spending is out of control.
Is the Trudeau government not the one that has recently facilitated record-high immigration (> 1,000,000/yr. incl. non-permanent) without planning for any additional housing or hospital beds? Does Karina Gould actually think that investing borrowed money now to fix a problem that the Liberals exacerbated will cause Canadians to forget her government’s gross incompetence and their personal financial pain at the next election? I’m sorry, for me it’s just “too little, too late”!
These are not homes. These we should all know now by now are mostly one bed room high rise condominiums. I personally think it is an outrageous use of borrowed taxpayer money apparently to largely fund foreign student ghettos in Burlington next to these mobility hubs.
Here are Minister Gould’s words…….
“With federal funding and federal leadership, we are changing how cities let housing get built in their municipalities. With a greater focus on higher density housing, student housing, homes near transit and affordable housing,….”
Past time for change.