BARRIE — Premier Doug Ford announced that Ontario will be providing Barrie with $6,344,201 in funding through the Building Faster Fund as the city has exceeded its 2023 housing target, breaking ground on a total of 1,716 new housing units last year.
“Barrie is getting it done on housing and we are proud to reward them for their success,” said Premier Doug Ford. “I’m so proud of Mayor Alex Nuttall and his council colleagues for exceeding their housing targets last year. My challenge to Mayor Nuttall and to every mayor in Ontario is to get even more homes built in the coming years so we can make life more affordable and keep the dream of homeownership alive for families across the province. We’ll be there to support you every step of the way.”
Announced in August 2023, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2 billion program that is 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.
“I would like to thank the province for recognizing one of the top performing municipalities in Ontario, the City of Barrie, for delivering on our commitment to build 23,000 homes over 10 years,” said Alex Nuttall, Mayor of Barrie. “This funding will further propel our efforts in creating a variety of housing options to suit the needs of our growing city, including our young people and seniors, while ensuring Barrie remains a thriving community to call home.”
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, ten per cent – 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.