For the second year in a row, Thunder Bay is receiving funding for surpassing the provincially set housing start target.
On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, visited Thunder Bay to provide the city with an $880,000 cheque for surpassing its goal.
“I’m delighted to announce that you guys are champions,” said Premier Doug Ford. “I’m delighted to announce that Thunder Bay beat its target, you hammered your target, you knocked it out of the park.”
“The ball is still going, achieving 143 per cent of its housing target in 2024.”
Last year, the city broke ground on 262 new homes.
“We’re proud to have met and exceeded our provincially assigned housing targets,” said Mayor Ken Boshcoff. “We are grateful to receive this funding through the Building Faster Fund, helping us to speed up approvals and get more shovels in the ground.”
In the fall of 2023, the province set a goal of building 1.5 million new homes (houses, apartments, or housing unit starts) by 2031, and the province’s 50 largest municipalities were given a housing target.
The province established the Building Faster Fund to help encourage cities to hit their target.
The fund is supplying a total of $1.2 billion over three years.
To access Building Faster funds, a municipality with a housing target would have had to hit at least 80 per cent of its target.
Last year, the city was awarded $870,890 for surpassing its 2023 housing target, reaching 124 per cent of the goal.
