The federal government is pledging $2.7 billion over three years to build more than 18 housing projects across the city of Toronto, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The partnership between the government of Canada and city of Toronto includes 5,600 rental homes, 1,800 of which will be “deeply affordable,” supportive or rent-controlled, Carney said at a news conference Wednesday. He said 4,500 new homes \u2014 80 per cent of the total \u2014 will be under construction by year’s end.<\/p>\n
He said the projects will take place in neighbourhoods hardest hit by rising rent and evictions, and will include a 16-story complex in Parkdale and another in Scarborough at 158 Borough Drive.<\/p>\n
“For generations people have come from every single corner of the earth to build a life here in Toronto,” Carney said. “Crucial to this is to build a healthy rental market for every kind of renter.”<\/p>\n
Mayor Chow said the buildings will bring housing security to thousands of people: “If you work here, you should be able to afford to live here,” she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If your rent is too high, if you’re looking for more space to raise a family, if you’ve been waiting for affordable housing for years \u2014 it’s coming.”<\/p>\n
Projects to fall into market-rate, non-profit channels<\/p>\n
Projects will be divided into two channels, Carney said.<\/p>\n
The first is non-market, non-profit housing, delivered through\u00a0Build Canada Homes, a federal agency aimed at building affordable housing. This includes more than $310 million to advance nine projects on city-owned land, he said. This means 1,900 homes, with more than 700 of them meeting the definition of affordable\u00a0housing.<\/p>\n
The city of Toronto is also contributing $530 million, including 99-year exemptions from municipal and school property taxes, said Carney.<\/p>\n
The second channel is market-rate housing \u2014 homes built by the\u00a0private sector and backed by “attractive” financing, Carney said. This includes more than $1.8 billion in federal funding for low-cost\u00a0financing for nine projects, resulting in 3,700 new\u00a0 homes, more than 1,000 of which will be affordable.<\/p>\n
“All of these projects had been approved in the past \u2026 all of them were stalled for want of financing, until today,” Carney said.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the buildings will bring housing security to thousands of people, and referred to them as “not luxury condos but rather places people can afford.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The fact is that too many Torontonians have been struggling to afford their rent,” Carney said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among the 18 projects will be an Indigenous-led 100-unit housing development at 15 Denison Ave. and another at 1113-1125 Dundas Street W. built sustainably with timber, geothermal energy and low-carbon design.<\/p>\n
The announcement is also happening against the backdrop of Ontario falling behind the province’s stated goal of building 1.5 million homes <\/a>\u00a0by 2031.<\/p>\n PM fields questions about island airport<\/p>\n The prime minister took questions after the conference, including on his government’s decision earlier this month to reject a proposal to expand Toronto’s city airport to allow jets to land and take off. That led Ford’s government to reconsider its support for Alto, the federal government’s proposed high-speed rail project.<\/p>\n Asked whether there would ever be commuter jets at the airport, Carney said that the results of the consultation were clear but “forever is a long time.”<\/p>\n