A ‘watertight’ case has Clarington confident reassessment will earn $4 million bonus from Queen’s Park

Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster believes the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation “messed up” in assessing the municipality’s eligibility for financial bonuses from the Province for meeting housing targets.

Foster is hopeful a meeting being set up next week with Housing Minister Pasul Callandra can resolve the situation.

The municipality achieved 955 new housing unit starts in 2023, exceeding the target of 953 set by the Province and making Clarington eligible for about $4 million from the Building Faster Fund, a $1.2 billion program that provides funding to municipalities that meet or exceed their annual housing targets.

The Doug Ford government said not so fast, however, claiming only 506 unit starts were achieved – just 53 per cent of the target – making it ineligible for funding.

Clarington CAO Mary-Anne Dempster provided an update at Monday morning’s General Government Committee and said she is “awaiting a date” for a meeting with Callandra being arranged by local MPP Todd McCarthy.

At stake is a $4 million bonus – an “important number,” noted Foster – and Dempster said she has not yet heard anything official from the Province and will “continue to lobby the government” to support its case.

Foster believes Clarington’s evidence is “pretty watertight” and the municipality has the documentation to back it up.

The Province uses Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) data to determine whether municipalities have met their targets, which Foster said is not comprehensive and has already been successfully challenged by Ajax and Whitby, who had their numbers reassessed, resulting in bonus cheques for Ajax ($4 million) and Whitby ($5.4 million).

Oshawa is also looking into their numbers, with staff delivering a report Monday afternoon showing the city has more than 12,000 units “in the hands of developers,” more than halfway to Oshawa’s goal of 23,000 new units by 2031.

Just 864 units – 51 per cent of its target – were recorded by CMHC in 2023, making the city ineligible for bonus funding.

Meeting its provincially-mandated targets requires the city to rely on the development industry to advance and the report notes that Oshawa has “no tools at its disposal” to require developers to submit a site plan application.

The report also declared Oshawa has “clearly demonstrates” it is “doing its part” to achieve the target of 23,000 new housing units by 2031.

“It would not be unreasonable to expect that the city would be eligible to receive funding from the Province through the Building Faster Fund.”