Ontario increasing funding for housing-enabling infrastructure

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is putting $1.6 billion more toward funds for municipalities to help them get housing built.

Ford told the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference on August 18 in Ottawa that the government has already put $2.3 billion toward its Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which goes toward housing-enabling infrastructure.

Municipalities apply through four streams, including one for building roads and bridges, and another for building water and wastewater systems.

Ontario is well off the pace of home building that’s needed to achieve Ford’s goal of getting 1.5 million homes built by 2031.

The government recently updated its housing tracker for the first time in eight months, and it shows that construction was started on 94,753 housing units in 2024 — well below its interim goal for that year of 125,000 homes — even after adding construction such as long-term care homes and university dorms to the count.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. figures released on August 18 say the country’s annual pace of housing starts in July rose four per cent year-over-year, but in Ontario there was a decline of 28 per cent.