Guelph is being rewarded for reaching its housing construction targets.
The province is providing $4.68 million from the Building Faster Fund to the city for breaking ground on 1,287 new housing units last year.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra was in Guelph on Thursday to meet with Mayor Cam Guthrie, council, and city staff.
Municipalities in Ontario who achieve at least 80 percent of their housing target receive the funding. A news conference was held inside city hall where Calandra expressed his gratitude for the city and their efforts in reaching 98 percent of their target.
“When I come to a community like this, you remove those obstacles, you find ways to get it done, while at the same time preserving and protecting the people of your community,” Calandra said.
Guthrie thanked the minister as well as those on the council and city staff for their support.
“We require support from upper levels of government, as well as the development community and other partner organizations,” Guthrie said. “This brings us closer to try and solve the housing crisis.”
Calandra also reiterated that it takes the work of all of the staff and council to move ahead with these housing projects. He would not say whether Guthrie’s use of the strong mayor powers to look into building homes on underutilized city property played a part in this announcement.
“You have to have not only the mayor but a team that surrounds the mayor that is willing to get shovels in the ground and get the planning work that needs to be done to get to this point,” Calandra said.
Guthrie was asked how this funding will impact the 2025 budget after expressing a desire to reduce the rate increase from close to 10 percent down to around four percent, a move that was also enabled through the use of the strong mayor powers.
“What we have to provide to the province is an investment plan,” said Guthrie in response. “That plan will be sent in to the province and then we’ll be working to see where it will be allocated.”
The province is pledging 1.5 million homes to be built by 2031. Of that number, Guelph is being asked to build 18,000 of those homes in the city over that time frame.