Ontario considers housing data revisions after municipal concerns of undercounting
Global News
Ontario is considering revising its tallies of how many homes are built in cities and towns across the province.
Ontario is considering revising its tallies of how many homes are built in cities and towns across the province, after some complained that undercounting has cost them millions in provincial funding.
As Premier Doug Ford’s government attempts to get 1.5 million homes built by 2031, it has assigned annual housing targets to 50 municipalities and promised extra funding to those who exceed or get close to them.
To qualify for money under the Building Faster Fund, which can be spent on housing-enabling infrastructure, municipalities need to have hit at least 80 per cent of their target of housing starts as calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
But the Ontario’s Big City Mayors group says there are discrepancies between the CMHC data and their own internal counts, and for four municipalities that were close to qualifying for funding it meant losing out on $23.3 million.
The town of Oakville has records of 2,701 housing starts in 2023, but the CMHC reported 1,752, which put the Greater Toronto Area municipality at 76 per cent of the province’s target and it therefore narrowly missed qualifying for Building Faster Fund money.
“We have building inspectors who inspect every poured foundation,” Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said.
“We keep records of those inspections: address, description, date, the whole deal. So CMHC has offered many stories over the last six months that have changed from time to time about how they do it and my submission is they’re not doing it right when our documented evidence is there to contradict them.”
The town of Ajax says CMHC missed counting 324 units in an apartment building. While the CMHC acknowledged the error and said it would include the units in the 2024 counts, it still means the town just missed out on qualifying for $4 million through the building fund, a spokesperson said.
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