The federal government announced $16 million toward supporting various efforts to help spur the development of residential units in Greater Sudbury.
Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith announced the funds during a media conference at Tom Davies Square on Monday.
“We need to really double down our commitment to community and social housing,” he told gathered dignitaries and media, adding that the next federal election will offer a “stark contrast” when it comes to housing investment, between the Liberals and Conservatives.
Following Monday’s public remarks, he told Sudbury.com that Canadians could expect an announcement from the Liberal Party of Canada in the near future regarding future investment in such things as co-operative housing.
“The market on its own is not going to deliver the affordability that we need,” he said. “We need governments at all levels to deliver that social, community housing."
The $16-million announced on Monday comes from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, which the City of Greater Sudbury applied for twice.
Although unsuccessful in their first attempt, Sudbury Liberal MP Viviane Lapointe clarified that it wasn’t due to a lack of trying.
Greater Sudbury Sudbury had already adopted a lot of the practices aimed at spurring the construction of residential units which the funds were earmarked to help support, Lapointe explained.
“In essence, they were penalized for doing many of the things the federal government wanted communities to do,” she said, adding that the criteria for the second round of funding was tweaked to help municipalities like Greater Sudbury get their share.
The city’s slate of financial incentives to build residential developments in targeted areas of the community, land banking efforts, the adoption of a Housing Supply Strategy, fourth unit as-of-right, housing as-of-right in institutionally zoned properties and other efforts were cited as key to Greater Sudbury proving their commitment to getting housing built.
Serré also flagged city council’s decision to freeze certain development charges for residential builds and place a moratorium on others as further evidence that the city is taking action.
The three-year freeze/moratorium was enacted on July 1, 2024. A split city council voted on the freeze/moratorium, which was estimated to shift $8 million to $11 million in municipal revenue from developers onto the general tax base during its three-year lifespan. City council was provided with no clear evidence at the time that the freeze/moratorium would spur the development of residential units.
During Monday’s announcement, a few numbers were bandied about pertaining to the impact of the $16-million funding boost, including Lapointe noting the investment would help spur the construction of 4,200 homes over the next decade.
By helping boost the city’s financial incentives to build affordable housing, Lefebvre said the funds would, in part, help get approximately 2,000 affordable housing units built.
“Municipal tax dollars are not enough,” he said, adding that the federal funding “really allows us to move forward.”
In addition to feeding financial incentives to build affordable housing, Lefebvre said the money would go toward shoring up more land for affordable housing via their land banking strategy (including infrastructure), and allow them to create a new housing concierge position, which will link developers with the resources they need “to ease that labyrinth" of bureaucracy.
By the end of the third quarter of 2024, the City of Greater Sudbury issued 833 permits for new housing units.
Last year, Greater Sudbury recorded an assessment growth of 1.2 per cent ($181 million). Sudbury.com will report on municipal assessment growth in a separate story to be published soon.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.