The Ontario government is providing the City of Peterborough with $1,880,000 in funding as a “reward” for the city exceeding its 2023 housing target.
The funding comes from the Building Faster Fund, a three-year $1.2 billion program announced in 2023 that is designed to encourage municipalities to address the housing supply crisis by providing funding to municipalities that have reached at least 80 per cent of their provincially assigned housing target for the year, with increased funding for municipalities that exceed their target.
The announcement, made by the municipal affairs and housing minister’s parliamentary assistant Matthew Rae in Peterborough on Monday (March 11), is one of a series of similar announcements from the Ontario government over the past few weeks.
Other municipalities that have received funding to date through the Building Faster Fund include Toronto ($114 million), Brampton ($25.5 million), Milton ($8 million), Brantford ($3.1 million), Whitchurch-Stouffville ($2.6 million), St. Catharines ($2.3 million), Welland ($1.72 million), Belleville ($1.24 million), and Chatham-Kent ($440,000).
Municipalities can direct funding from the Building Faster Fund toward housing-enabling infrastructure and other related costs that support community growth.
In August 2023, the Ontario government assigned housing targets to 50 municipalities including Peterborough as part of a provincial plan to build at least 1.5 million homes by 2031.
Once the head of councils pledged to achieve their municipalities’ housing targets, they became eligible for the Building Faster Fund and were also given strong mayor powers, which include allowing mayors to propose housing-related bylaws and pass them with the support of one-third of councillors.
For the City of Peterborough, the provincial government assigned a total housing target of 4,700 by 2031, including a target of 345 housing starts in 2023, 392 in 2024, and 470 in 2025.
On January 12, the city announced it had exceeded the 2023 housing target by issuing permits to start construction on 435 housing units last year. However, according to the media release from the provincial government announcing the $1.88 million in funding for Peterborough, the city broke ground on a total of 506 new housing units last year.
