The province’s associate minister of housing was in Sarnia Wednesday to present a cheque for $400,000 after the city exceeded its 2023 housing target.
Rob Flack joined city officials at city hall for the announcement and cheque presentation, pointing to Sarnia's tally of more than 250 new housing units last year.
Sarnia was given a target of 73 units.
“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,” Flack said in a news release. “Sarnia 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.”
Announced in August 2023, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2 billion program designed to encourage municipalities to 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.
"With the present and continued growth of the population of the City of Sarnia predicted for the next decade and beyond as we continue to diversify our economy, the provincial funds announced today will help Sarnia to continue to expand, to diversify, and to be an inclusive and welcoming community to live, work, and play,” said Mayor Mike Bradley. “The funding is an endorsement of the city greatly exceeding its housing targets because of the planning of city council and city staff over the last decade to provide the support and infrastructure to support investment, growth and to add to the 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, through an application process. In addition, 10% – or $120 million – of the Building Faster Fund is 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, officials said.
“I’m extremely pleased to see the City of Sarnia exceeding their housing targets,” said Bob Bailey, MPP for Sarnia-Lambton. “With the support of these provincial funds, I look forward to hearing about even more housing starts in Sarnia in the year ahead.”