Ottawa, mayors won’t ‘slow things down’ on housing despite premiers’ criticism – National | 24CA News
The mayor of Halifax, which just lately secured a take care of Ottawa to fast-track the constructing of hundreds of recent houses, says he was caught off guard by current complaints from premiers over being overlooked of funding agreements between the federal authorities and cities.
Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who has been travelling throughout Canada to spotlight such agreements made immediately with cities, says he was additionally shocked by the backlash — however shouldn’t be planning to again down.
The mayor of Winnipeg, which nonetheless hoping for its personal request to be permitted, says he’s extra centered on getting the cash shortly, slightly than which stage of presidency pays the payments.
The newest irritant within the relationship between Ottawa and the premiers got here to a head on Monday. After their assembly in Halifax, provincial and territorial leaders launched a communique that known as for federal funding “that flows exclusively through provinces and territories” to handle housing wants and help long-term capital planning.
It comes after the federal authorities has signed agreements with cities akin to Halifax, Calgary, Hamilton as a part of the Housing Accelerator Fund program that started rolling out this summer season.
But the federal authorities and several other mayors are doubling down on the necessity to get funds flowing to cities as shortly as attainable.
The Liberals have been encouraging municipalities to submit purposes that might change municipal bylaws and laws to advertise densification, akin to eliminating constructing top restrictions or parking requirements, and decreasing crimson tape.
On Wednesday, Fraser mentioned he had not beforehand heard any complaints from the provinces about this system.
“There’s been no premier — and most of them do have my phone number — there’s been no provincial counterpart at a ministerial level who has raised a single concern,” Fraser mentioned after a speech on the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness convention in Halifax.
“In fact, the only ones that I have engaged with have indicated that they’re quite happy to see the federal government make investments in housing in provinces.”
The Liberals promised the $4-billion fund through the 2021 election marketing campaign. The cash was allotted to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. within the 2022 federal funds, with the objective of including at the very least 100,000 new houses throughout the nation over 5 years.
But the primary deal, with London, Ont., was not introduced till this September. It occurred because the Liberals had been holding a caucus retreat in that metropolis, centered on the right way to deal with a nationwide housing disaster forward of their return to Parliament after a summer season of rising help for the Conservatives.
So far, the federal authorities has touted this system as a hit, estimating that the offers signed with seven cities to this point will get greater than 146,000 houses constructed over the subsequent 10 years.
But Canada’s premiers keep that they’ve been lower out of the method, and in consequence they’re threatening to enact laws that might see them deal immediately with Ottawa in brokering such offers.
The mannequin they level to is a $900-million housing settlement Quebec reached final month on behalf of its cities and cities.
“You can’t have the federal government coming into a certain town or certain city and dumping funding and not even discussing it with the province. That’s unacceptable. We call it jurisdictional creep,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford mentioned on Monday.
“Obviously, they don’t want to work collaboratively when they do that. We do want to work collaboratively.”
The premiers have argued that they need to be concerned to be sure that funding is equitable for communities and meets the wants of their provinces.
Fraser mentioned that if provinces need to have extra of a say in housing, they’ve the instruments to supply the identical sorts of incentives.
“But I’m not going to put the brakes on a program that’s actually showing the results right now. There is no time to waste in a crisis situation,” he mentioned Wednesday.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Quebec Premier Francois Legault to formally announce that $900-million settlement — and the choice by the province to match it.
Trudeau echoed Fraser’s earlier feedback by encouraging provinces to observe Quebec’s lead.
“When we put forward $900 million as Quebec’s share of the housing accelerator, the province of Quebec said ‘OK, we’re going to step up and double it.’ There’s not another province that has offered to do that,” Trudeau mentioned in Longueil, Que.
“We welcome them to come and do more with us.”
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, who can also be the chair of the Big City Mayors’ Caucus on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, mentioned he had not beforehand heard any issues from the Nova Scotia authorities on the Housing Accelerator Fund.
He additionally famous the provincial authorities was supportive of the town’s utility for funding.
“It’s a little bit new and out of the blue to me. I just think it’s time that we all stopped fighting about jurisdiction and actually started solving the problem,” Savage mentioned in an interview on Wednesday.
“We don’t want to slow things down. And we don’t think that it’s fair to say that there’s no role for the federal government in directly supporting municipal governments,” he mentioned.
“In the same way that the provinces want to collaborate with the federal government, we want to collaborate with provincial governments. It’s just been easier, frankly, to collaborate with the feds.”
Last month, the federal authorities and Halifax reached an settlement to offer the town $79 million towards housing, an funding that’s supposed to assist construct 9,000 new houses.
In addition to the seven cities the federal authorities has reached agreements with, tons of extra municipalities have submitted purposes.
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, who’s hoping his metropolis will safe a take care of the federal authorities, mentioned he was additionally caught off-guard by the premiers this week. He known as on them to work collaboratively with Ottawa.
“It really is a head-scratcher for me that in a housing crisis, you would have different levels of government sort of at odds with each other about how funding could flow to exactly where it needs to flow to, which happens to be municipalities where housing is built,” Guthrie mentioned.
“Instead of trying to potentially put up roadblocks or to delay the type of funding that’s needed in this crisis,” he mentioned, he would encourage the provinces to divert that very same vitality into “seeing how you could partner with the federal government on even more funding that could come to unlock more housing.”
In Winnipeg, Mayor Scott Gillingham is making an attempt to safe an settlement with the federal authorities after the town put in an utility for $192 million.
“I appreciate (that) traditionally, funding from the federal government flows through the provincial governments. But there have been incidences in the past where the federal government has given money directly to cities,” Gillingham mentioned in an interview.
“My priority and my concern is getting the funds drawn down into Winnipeg in the easiest, quickest way possible to put it to use.”
—With recordsdata from Lyndsay Armstrong in Halifax.
