The federal government has tabled an ambitious plan to help solve the housing crisis, and local officials are vowing to ensure Orillia receives its share.
The federal government’s 2024 budget includes plans to bring 3.87 million new homes to Canada by 2031 – an additional two million homes beyond the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s forecast over that span.
The federal housing plan includes a variety of initiatives meant to help meet that target and to make home ownership more attainable, some of which are as follows:
- Building more affordable housing on public lands owned by all levels of government, “on every possible public site across the public portfolio”;
- Providing $15 billion in additional funds to the apartment construction loan program to build 30,000 new rental apartments, and 131,000 new apartments by 2031-32;
- Introducing a housing catalogue, similar to the previous post-war effort, providing a set standard of designs on a variety of housing types to help reduce cost and timelines for construction;
- Allowing rental payment history to contribute to credit scores and help residents qualify for mortgages;
- Extending amortization periods for first-time home buyers to 30 years for newly built homes;
- Providing $1 billion to the federal affordable housing fund, and launching a permanent rapid housing stream;
- Introducing a tax free first home savings account;
- Providing $50 million for municipalities to help enforce short term rental issues; and more
At first glance, the proposed plan is something Mayor Don McIsaac is looking forward to, although he cautioned that the devil is in the detail of ambitious plans like these.
“Anything that helps incentivize new housing is good. We need more housing, no question about it,” he said.
“This is a difficult issue, and I see that both the province and the federal government are taking steps to help incentivize housing, and we're excited about it," said the mayor. “It's a great thing, but then when you get into detail, that's where the devil is."
The mayor called the 3.87-million home target “very aggressive,” but said he felt optimistic about the target being achieved, and about ensuring Orillia receives its share of funding and incentives to help bring more homes to the area.
“It's all great, but obviously Orillia wants to get our share,” he said. “We'll compete against anybody, for sure. We're confident in our abilities. We just hope that we can get our share of it and we can make a meaningful dent in the problem.”
City of Orillia staff say they look forward to the plan and will be reviewing it in detail moving forward.
"We are encouraged to see investments in the provincial and federal budgets towards initiatives such as affordable housing, climate action, and beyond," said Ian Sugden, the city's general manager of development services and engineering.
"We will be reviewing these opportunities in detail as we continue to implement our Affordable Housing Action Plan, Climate Change Action Plan, and other priorities as directed by our Council and work with our partners, including the County of Simcoe as our housing service provider," said Sugden.
For Cam Davidson, the chair of the city’s affordable housing committee, ideas like the upcoming housing catalogue present a unique opportunity for the city to help increase its housing stock — whether through apartments, townhouses, duplexes, or other types of housing.
“The bottom line is if we build housing that the government has already pre-approved, maybe our chances of getting funding go up,” he said. “There's many different designs in that catalogue … they would fit into the neighbourhoods that we already have quite nicely.”
Davidson said, for example, $30-40 million in funding could help the city with affordable housing projects currently in development.
He stressed the importance of finding “a way to get some funding in Orillia” for a variety of housing needs, such as building housing on top of the proposed new transit terminal, or on top of municipal parking lots as was recently suggested by Orillia's Mike McMurter.
“We’re going to approach the proper people, probably in the next couple of months to figure out how we can do this,” he said.
Some concern exists, however, with the federal government and provincial governments agreeing on the plan — with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently introducing a “stay out of my backyard bill,” which could require provincial oversight for housing deals between federal and municipal governments in Alberta.
In early April, before the federal government announced the housing plan, Premier Doug Ford also spoke against a $6 billion federal plan asking provinces to require municipalities to allow fourplexes, triplexes, and other “missing middle” housing types to qualify for funding.
“These are complex issues, obviously, affordable housing and homelessness aren't just the Orillia’s problems — they’re problems across the country,” said McIsaac. “The province and the federal government, hopefully they can figure out a balance to work together on this.”
“We all have the same interests in common — federal, provincial and the municipalities — and that’s to provide more housing,” he said. “Hopefully we can all join hands and figure out a way to do that.”
Davidson similarly expressed hope for the provincial and federal government to play ball on the housing plan, which requires provincial buy-in for over $5 billion in funding to help support long-term housing priorities.
No matter the path forward, however, Davidson said the important thing is to find ways to start building more homes.
“I think we're in a situation now in this country, and Orillia, where if we don’t do something really concrete, really quickly, then this problem may never be solved,” he said.
The full federal housing plan may be found here.
