Three Metro Vancouver cities rewarded with more federal housing funding | Daily Hive

Three Metro Vancouver cities rewarded with extra federal housing funding for 'top performance'

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim at the Groundbreaking ceremony for The Cascades rental housing complex on June 15, 2023. (Sukhwant Dhillon)

Being on the Government of Canada’s “good list” for the federal Housing Accelerator Fund is paying off for 27 local and municipal governments across the country.

On Saturday, amid a wave of funding announcements before the cutoff of Sunday’s snap federal election call, the federal government announced additional funding for 27 “top-performing” jurisdictions from the first round of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

The first round of funding was awarded between Summer 2023 and early 2024.

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Local and municipal governments applied to the federal government for a share of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which can be used to expedite municipal processes for reviewing and approving new housing applications, reform existing policies to simplify development, create new area plans to enable densification, and/or subsidize reduced fees for certain types of new housing projects. This also includes using federal funding to help cover the added labour costs for City staff in rolling out new initiatives and policies.

In essence, the HAF aims to accelerate housing development nationwide, including affordable housing, with each recipient local and municipal government provided with new housing supply targets to reach in exchange for the funding.

According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the “top performers” to date have already shown major progress by meeting their incremental unit goals and delivering on their HAF strategies commitments for the first year of the program. As well, they proposed additional initiatives to accelerate housing.

This progress made 27 jurisdictions eligible for up to 10 per cent in additional funding based on the value of their original HAF agreement.

Three major municipal governments in Metro Vancouver are among the 27 recipients across Canada.

This includes $2.48 million in additional funding for the City of Coquitlam, which originally received $25 million from HAF, representing a bonus of nearly the full 10 per cent.

The City of Vancouver is being rewarded with $4.375 million in additional HAF funding, representing a bonus of four per cent of its original allocation of $115 million.

As well, the City of Surrey will receive $5.1 million extra, representing a five per cent bonus of its original $95.6 million from the program.

“Council has been working diligently to deliver a wide spectrum of housing, and this new funding highlights the effectiveness of Surrey’s Housing Action. This investment will allow us to continue to expand our housing initiatives to foster inclusivity and accessibility for all,” said Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke today in reaction to the HAF bonus.

Ron Gill, the General Manager of Planning & Development for the City of Surrey, added, “The new initiative aimed at reviewing the approved Neighbourhood Concept Plans will support one of the Housing Action Plan goals of delivering a range of housing in Surrey. Staff have been working hard on delivering the existing eight initiatives, and this addition of the ninth will only reaffirm the work the team is doing.”

Within Metro Vancouver, the federal government has also provided bonus HAF funding of $160,000 to the Municipality of Bowen Island and $284,000 to the Tsawwassen First Nation.

Across the country, the largest first-round recipients of extra HAF funding for top performance to date entail $22.84 million in bonus funding to the City of Calgary (full 10 per cent of $228 million), $17.48 million to the City of Edmonton (full 10 per cent of $175 million), and $7.39 million to the City of London (full 10 per cent of $74 million).

In total, the 27 cities were rewarded with a combined total of $74 million in additional funding, which will go towards fast-tracking an additional 2,219 new housing units over the next two years. Overall, HAF aims to fast-track at least 112,000 new homes by 2028 and catalyze over 750,000 new homes.

“Our government is committed to removing barriers and cutting red tape to enable housing development, and this additional funding will help leading communities do just that,” said Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities, on Saturday.

The HAF is supported by $4.4 billion in funding through 2027/2028, including $4 billion from the program’s original budget and a top up of $400 million in the 2024 budget.

Not including any bonus funding, the combined HAF allocation to Metro Vancouver municipalities to date now stands at roughly $330 million, including $43 million to the City of Burnaby and $36 million to the City of Richmond. Through the second round of initial funding, $11.4 million was provided to the City of New Westminster and $14.2 million to the City of Delta.

Provincially, to date, the total has reached over $430 million or roughly 10 per cent of the combined $4.4 billion available nationwide across the first and second rounds of funding.

canada housing accelerator fund extra bonus march 2025

List of 27 “top performing” first-round cities receiving bonus funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund. (CMHC)

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