KENILWORTH – Wellington North hopes to dip into a $4-billion federal Housing Accelerator Fund as the municipality considers how it will pay for growth.
At an Aug. 28 meeting, council endorsed initiatives included in an application to the fund and listed in a report from township CAO Brooke Lambert.
They include: water towers in Arthur and Mount Forest, an upgrade to the Arthur wastewater treatment plant, the fire hall and aquatics centre in Mount Forest, the Arthur community centre, and a growth management strategy.
Councillor Steve McCabe questioned how the fund, administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, would help pay for those initiatives.
Lambert explained the program aims to help pay for projects related to increasing Canada’s housing supply.
“The funding is intended to drive change within the sphere of control of the local government, related to land use planning and development approvals,” Lambert’s report states.
She told council the township has been “very proactive” on housing over the past several years.
“We have done a lot of work that puts us in a good position to actually build housing, if we can support it by building the infrastructure that’s also needed,” she explained.
Initiatives included in the township’s application, submitted on Aug. 18, are based on a 10-year capital plan, focusing primarily on housing- and community-related infrastructure.
Lambert couldn’t speak to how much funding the township may be eligible for, but said base funding is tied to the amount of housing units the program helps build, and there are additional components including top-off funding and an affordable-unit bonus.
“How we define that affordability is a key point; my understanding is that the province is going to be doing some work shortly to actually give us a definition for affordable housing,” Lambert said.
‘We need to keep up the work’
Mayor Andy Lennox laughed about the township falling into the fund’s “large urban stream,” but noted many communities across the country are much smaller.
The mayor attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference last week, and said a lot of discussion was had about alternative ways to fund municipal needs.
There was talk about having a portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax committed to municipal purposes, Lennox said, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is advocating for alternative funding methods.
“[Ontario finance minister Peter Bethlenfalvy] admitted openly, which was refreshing to me, that municipalities do need a different way to fund themselves,” Lennox said.
“But on the other hand, he categorically said ‘no’ to sales tax as a potential option.”
The mayor said Wellington North has “a lot to be proud of” when it comes to its growth plan and the diversity of housing types available.
“We are very much further ahead in terms of our planning process,” Lennox said.
“We need to keep up the work through, if we’re going to … not only meet our provincial target for growth, but meet our community’s needs, too.”
Lambert is hopeful the township will be recognized for its work on housing, and receive accelerator fund dollars “to help with the infrastructure needs that we know we are going to require over the next several years.”
Council carried a recommendation to support the initiatives in the township’s application, should it be successful.
“It’s quite an involved process, but I think it’s definitely something we should look at,” Lambert said.
— With files from Nicole Beswitherick
