Mississauga (Feb 23) – Mississauga is asking the province to revisit how it allocates important housing funding to local municipalities after being told it was not eligible for the Building Faster Fund awarded to Brampton and Toronto this week.
The city says that it has written a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing outlining its key concerns after Mississauga was deemed ineligible for funding primarily due to insufficient housing starts which it claims is “completely outside” of its control.
“As a City, we understand the urgency of this crisis and are using all of the tools we have to prioritize getting more homes built,” said Acting Mississauga Mayor Joe Horneck said in a statement. “We will continue to address these important issues with the industry experts on our Housing Panel to find innovative solutions that will help us continue to deliver on our housing commitments.”
Housing starts are counted when the building’s foundation is finished. Mississauga points out that in a high-rise, this could be many months, often years, after the City issues a building permit.
“Cities in Ontario are at different stages of growth and development which makes comparing housing starts problematic. Mississauga is no longer building low-rise subdivisions like other GTA cities which are much faster and simpler to build than complex high-rise towers,” City officials said.
Despite having 3,470 housing starts in 2023, Mississauga says it has approved over 31,000 residential units in the last three years through “our development process”. More than 12,000 units under construction and more than 33,000 residential units undergoing site plan review, according to a statement from the city.
“We’re disappointed that Mississauga residents are losing out on much-needed funding that can help our city deliver the kind of intensification the province is looking for,” said Shari Lichterman, Mississauga City Manager and Chief Administrative Officer. “The worst part is that we’re losing out on funding despite all of the work we’ve undertaken to grow our City including streamlining our development and building permit approval processes and expanding housing permissions.”
Given the government’s decision to deem Mississauga ineligible for the Building Faster Fund, the City is encouraging the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to “prioritize consultations on appropriate ways to measure municipalities on our progress”.
