$8.8 billion promised to increase housing, expand GO Transit and new Toronto line

The Canadian and Ontario governments announced an $8.8 billion plan to increase housing.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford announced a new partnership between Canada and Ontario aimed at building more affordable homes, infrastructure and transit.

The two levels of government will spend $4.4 billion on housing-related infrastructure over the next ten years.

The partnership will reduce taxes and fees for a home in Ontario by up to $200,000, Carney said in the press conference on Monday in an Etobicoke mixed-use affordable rental building, The Stella, now under construction near Kipling Station.

The plan includes incentivizing municipalities to lower development charges. Development charges are fees collected from developers to help pay for the cost of infrastructure required to provide municipal services to new development.

Ford said the federal and provincial infrastructure funding will be prioritized for communities willing to cut development charges by up to 50 per cent.

Asked how the government would keep the developers accountable, Carney said these are quality companies that want to build affordable housing.

“One of their frustrations has been red tape; we have seen efforts to reduce red tape; speed up approval times,” said Carney. “And another element has been the layers of fees.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at a press conference in Etobicoke on Monday, March 30. Photo: Karen Longwell

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow supported the announcement and said developers and government can come together to create housing, including affordable units.

“If the City of Toronto has infrastructure covered by the federal and provincial government, then we can provide the fiscal room and lower the development charges, that’s how it would work,” Chow said.

Ford said the market will dictate what gets built, and the municipalities that step up will get infrastructure funding.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, speaks as Prime Minister Mark Carney left, and Premier Doug Ford look on at press conference in Etobicoke. Photo: Karen Longwell

Canada and Ontario are also collaborating on several transit projects.

A waterfront east transit line would run from Union Station to developments in the Port Lands and East Bayfront. This will be funded in a three-way partnership between the federal government, the Ontario government, and the City of Toronto.

The line will serve more than 150,000 people, support over 50,000 daily trips, and is expected to enable 75,000 housing units.

There was also a promise to expand GO Transit service, in what is called GO 2.0, across the Greater Golden Horseshoe region. Few details were offered on how and where the service would expand.

The government would also continue to advance work on the high-speed rail service, ALTO, from Toronto to Québec City, and five other transit projects—the Ontario Line, Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, Scarborough Subway Extension, Yonge North Subway Extension, and Hamilton Light Rail Transit.

Ontario also unveiled a plan with the federal government last week to waive the harmonized sales tax on eligible new builds for the next year.

The latest funding announcement comes a few days after Ottawa announced it was earmarking $1.7 billion for all provinces and territories to boost housing supply however they see fit.

In a statement, federal Conservative housing critic, Scott Aitchison, said the plan is a waste of tax dollars.

“Once again this Liberal government is throwing out billions of taxpayer dollars with no guarantees of results, targets or accountability to build homes,” Aitchison said. “We’ve seen this story before – it’s just like their failed housing accelerator bureaucracy, where municipalities increased development charges and permit times and continue to collect federal taxpayer dollars with nothing to show for it.”

During the press conference, a nearby protest on Grassy Narrows drowned out the speakers. Carney said he could outlast the people shouting, but at times he was difficult to hear. For over 60 years, the Grassy Narrows community has lived with pollution from chemicals of pulp‐and‐paper bleaching in the river system.

Grassy Narrows is in Northwestern Ontario, 80 kilometres north of Kenora.

With files from The Canadian Press

Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Scott Aitchison.