Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville has been awarded $2.6 million through Ontario’s Building Faster Fund after exceeding the 2023 housing target, breaking ground on 1,141 new housing units last year.
“I applaud the work being done by Whitchurch-Stouffville and all the other municipalities that have met or exceeded their housing targets and I’m proud to see our community helping lead the province when it comes to building homes,” said Paul Calandra, minister of municipal affairs and housing and MPP for Markham-Stouffville. “Our government is committed to building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031 and I look forward to unveiling the next steps in our plan to build more homes with the release of our fifth housing supply action plan later this month.”
The three-year, $1.2-billion will be shared by municipalities that meet or exceed at least 80 per cent of their provincially assigned housing targets.
“In Stouffville, we’re not just building houses, we’re building homes and a community that reflects our town’s unique character,” Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said in a news release. “We are incredibly grateful for the support from the province’s Building Faster Fund. This support will reinforce our efforts to meet housing targets and create a brighter future for all our residents.”
According to the provincial housing start tracker, Stouffville could be the lone York Region municipality to hit established targets for new housing starts.
The Region and Town of Newmarket have said they are unable to meet targets because they cannot control developers. Across the region there were about 7,100 new units annually over the last 10 years, but the provincial targets require 16,700 new units each year.
Newmarket failed to meet the annual target of 880 with just 286 units, about 33 per cent of the target.
Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan also failed to reach 2023 targets and Georgina is listed as “on track” with 419 units in progress of the 455 needed for 2023.
“In Stouffville, we’re not just building houses, we’re building homes and a community that reflects our town’s unique character,” said Iain Lovatt, Mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville. “We are incredibly grateful for the support from the province’s Building Faster Fund. This support will reinforce our efforts to meet housing targets and create a brighter future for all our residents.”
Unspent funding will be made available for housing-enabling infrastructure to all municipalities, including those that have already received funding as a result of reaching their targets, through an application process.
Also, 10 per cent – $120 million – of the building fund is being set aside for small, rural and northern municipalities to help build housing-enabling infrastructure and prioritize projects that speed up the increase of housing supply.
“As part of our government’s plan to fix long-term care in Ontario, we’re investing $6.4 billion to build 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care spaces for our seniors to call home,” said Stan Cho, Minister of Long-Term Care. “Last year alone, we broke ground on 416 new long-term care spaces in Whitchurch-Stouffville. With the help of our municipal partners, we’re building long-term care and getting it done for seniors across the province.”
New housing starts, new and upgraded long-term care beds, and additional residential units created by renovating or converting existing residential and non-residential buildings are all being considered when calculating if a municipality has reached its housing target.