As many municipalities in Ontario struggle to meet more onerous targets under a provincial housing-target program, Sarnia was celebrating Wednesday after shattering its year-one goal.
As many municipalities in Ontario struggle to meet more onerous targets under a provincial housing-target program, Sarnia was celebrating Wednesday after shattering its year-one goal.
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Associate housing minister Rob Flack brought the city its $400,000 reward for breaking ground on 254 housing units last year.
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“Sarnia has done a wonderful job of creating that environment to get the job done,” he said.
Sarnia’s target was 73 units, and the city has pledged to start 1,100 by 2031, a small part of the province’s 1.5-million-unit more homes for everyone plan.
“This is an important step forward for us to show that a small community can do it,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said, about the city exceeding its target.
The money from the building faster fund is welcome, he said, noting city council needs to decide how it will be spent, but options include assisting with affordable housing projects, or investing in infrastructure that supports housing.
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That includes development charge-funded projects like building roads and water mains, as the city looks to expand in its southeast with a new development area, and in Bright’s Grove, though expanding the urban boundary to allow more building there hasn’t been approved yet.
“We need to get that official plan ratified so we can move forward,” Bradley said.
The amount of money cities receive from development charges was curtailed in recent years under the provincial More Homes Built Faster Act, including exemptions for things such as affordable housing projects.
Sarnia was one among 50 extended municipalities strong mayor powers to help it achieve its housing targets and to allow access to building faster funds as compensation for those development charge losses, Bradley said.
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Ultimately the aim is to provide more shelter as Sarnia – along with other areas in the province – struggles with homelessness, he said.
How much Sarnia gets in years two and three from the building faster fund depends on the number of housing starts it achievesand how other municipalities do, said ministry spokesperson Scott Collyer.
“It will be based on what their performance is, and then also what the global ask is,” he said.
City of Sarnia officials have estimated Sarnia’s reward could be $840,000 during three years, based on making 105 per cent.
Local targets in years two and three are 83 and 100 units respectively.
For about six years, recently, Sarnia issued permits for an average of 143 units a year, and the city already has approved 2,450 units that have yet to be built, city staff said in November.
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“There will be money in the future if we can just keep on,” Bradley said.
He noted the County of Lambton’s top priority is housing and homelessness, including a potential supportive housing project for which Sarnia donated part of a downtown parking lot, and said there are opportunities on local school board land and on land around the Sarnia courthouse for more housing development.
“I know (Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey) is working on that” courthouse land possibility, Bradley said at the announcement, as Bailey nodded nearby.
“In this country that is this wealthy there should be no one sleeping on the streets of Sarnia,” Bradley said.
Flack noted the upcoming provincial budget will focus on “helping getting shovels in the ground” and infrastructure.
The building faster fund is about incentivizing municipalities to build more housing, he said.
Provincially, jobs and economic development are good as Ontario’s population continues to grow, he said.
“The one part that we are missing, that we’re not keeping up with, obviously, is housing.”
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