Trudeau government announces $6 billion housing infrastructure fund

The Trudeau government’s pre-budget cross-country tour continued Tuesday with the announcement that it will launch a $6 billion housing infrastructure fund.

The money is meant to speed up construction and improve things like water infrastructure,
but to get the funds, the provinces will have to meet certain conditions with a deadline of 2025.

The federal government plans to make $1 billion directly available to cities for urgent infrastructure needs, while the rest of the money is up in the air until provinces and territories sign on.

This would require them to adopt certain housing policies including the recently announced renters’ bill of rights, freeze development charges for three years, and require municipalities to broadly allow the construction of fourplexes.

Now that’s an issue in Ontario because last week, Premier Doug Ford said his government would not introduce legislation to automatically legalize fourplexes across the province.

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And Ford is not alone, a few other premiers say they’re displeased with the federal government’s decision to place conditions on provinces and territories.

“We want to go even faster and further, this is why in Budget 2024 we will invest an additional $400 million in the housing accelerator fund to fast track the construction of even more homes,” Trudeau said.

“Today’s announcement is part of our larger housing plan and we’ll have even more to say over the coming days.”

Following Tuesday’s announcement, a spokeswoman for Ontario’s housing minister said the provincial government will wait for more details from the federal government and is open to collaboration.