North Bay’s getting a $400,000 shot in the arm after officials say the city exceeded its 2023 housing target and broke ground on a total of 202 new housing units.
Rob Flack, associate minister of housing, was in North Bay for the announcement earlier today.
“Our government is making historic investments in infrastructure to give municipalities the tools they need to ensure that every resident has an affordable place to call home,” said Flack. “The City of North Bay and all other municipalities that have met or exceeded their housing targets should be proud of the work they have done to get shovels in the ground faster.”
The money comes from the ‘Building Faster Fund’, a three-year, $1.2 billion program, which the province says is designed to encourage municipalities address the housing supply crisis. The fund rewards municipalities that make significant progress against their targets by providing funding for housing-enabling and community-enabling infrastructure. Funding is provided 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 City of North Bay has made the accessibility and affordability of housing within our community a priority,” said Peter Chirico, Mayor of the City of North Bay. “I would like to thank the Province for its ongoing support. With the help of Ontario’s Building Faster Fund, we anticipate even more progress in the coming years in creating an environment that further facilitates the growth of our local housing supply.”
Any unspent funding from the Building Faster Fund will be made available for housing-enabling infrastructure to all municipalities, including those that have already received funding as a result of reaching their targets, with ten per cent – or $120 million – of the Building Faster Fund also being set aside for small, rural and northern municipalities to help build housing-enabling infrastructure and prioritize projects that speed up the increase of housing supply.
“We applaud the work being done by the City of North Bay to exceed their housing targets and contribute to the province’s goal of building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031,” said Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing. “Through their efforts and commitment, the city is tackling the affordability crisis by creating new opportunities for families to grow.”
