Achi news desk-
There are so many new federal funding measures, it can be hard to keep track of them.
“Because we have announced a bundle of things over the last few days,” said Canada’s Minister for Gender Equality and Women and Youth Marci Ien.
On Wednesday, the prime minister was in Halifax to announce the $1 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund.
The federal government has also recently unveiled a series of new measures intended to make home ownership more affordable.
“You should be able to afford a place to live nearby,” Canadian Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser said earlier this week.
Thursday in Halifax, more new funding. This time, the Canada Rent Protection Fund
“A $1.5 billion program that will provide funding for affordable housing providers to acquire affordable housing units, and offer them at affordable rates,” said Energy and Natural Resources Minister John Wilkinson.
All of these recent and frequent funding announcements raise the question: if affordable housing has been a crisis for many years, why is the government only acting now instead of earlier?
“For about 30 years, the federal government was completely absent from the housing file,” said Wilkinson, who added that the issue had previously been pushed back to provinces and municipalities, but now the Trudeau government is taking a more urgent approach in response to recent affordability issues. “That came out of COVID-19, that came out of increases to inflation and that came out of increases in the interest rates.”
Developer Danny Chedrawe said new federal programs mean apartments in a soon-to-open apartment complex will be made more affordable for renters.
“In this particular location, we’re offering 105 units at a maximum rent of $1,722,” according to Chedrawe, who also said savings will be around $1,000 a month or less. “Based on the mean income of families here in Halifax.”
It is yet another example of a new federal promise and given the recent pattern, don’t be surprised if more funding announcements are made in the near future.
