North Bay, northern centres exceed housing targets for 2023

All four northern Ontario municipalities with housing-start targets exceeded them in 2023

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Major northern centres are well on their way to meeting Ontario government-assigned building targets.

Ontario's 50 largest municipalities were assigned housing targets. Of those 50 municipalities, 19 exceeded their targets, including all four of the northern Ontario cities assigned targets: North Bay, Greater Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

According to the province's housing tracker, North Bay beat its target by 277 per cent, Greater Sudbury by 156 per cent, Sault Ste. Marie by 194 per cent, and Thunder Bay by 124 per cent.

Sault Ste. Marie had 213 housing starts last year, exceeding our 2023 target by 194 per cent.

Meeting the commitment is a requirement to getting access to the province's Building Faster Fund – a $1.2 billion pool of cash aimed at helping municipalities meet Premier Doug Ford's goal of 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

Using Sault Ste. Marie as an example, if the target is met the city will get $1.2 million in three annual payments of $400,000. If it's 110 per cent of the 1,500-home target, $1,440,000. If 80 per cent of the target, the City of Sault Ste. Marie's payout will be reduced to $960,000.

For purposes of eligibility, the target of 1,500 homes by 2031 is counted from 2022.

"In the coming weeks, the province will announce Building Faster Fund rewards for all municipalities that met, exceeded or achieved 80 per cent of their assigned housing targets in 2023," Premier Ford said in a news release last week.

"Any unspent funding 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 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," the release said.

The following, as posted on the province's housing tracker website, is the target status of all 50 municipalities with assigned housing targets.

Cities listed as being 'on track' achieved 80 per cent of their 2023 targets.