Ontario risks $357M in housing funds if action plan isn't replaced today: federal minister

Ontario risks losing $357 million in federal funding for affordable housing if the provincial government does not submit a revised action plan to meet its federal housing targets by the end of the day Friday, the federal housing minister said.

In a letter addressed to Ontario Housing Minister Paul Calandra on Thursday, federal housing minister Sean Fraser wrote that Ontario's draft action plan for 2022-2025 fails to meet commitments made to the federal government in 2018.

«Speaking frankly, the proposed Action Plan is a disappointment,» Fraser wrote in the letter.

In response to Fraser, Calandra said that «it is unacceptable that you would choose to threaten our most vulnerable.»

He told the minister that «withholding funding would simply be a punitive measure that will benefit no one.»

'Ontario is lagging desperately behind'

The federal government signed a 10-year bilateral housing agreement in 2018 for the delivery of over $5.8 billion in cost-shared investments in Ontario, the federal letter says.

Fraser wrote that the province's action plan fails to meet commitments of the agreement.

«Ontario is lagging desperately behind all other provinces and territories,» he said.

Under the partnership, Ontario agreed to expand the number of new affordable housing units in the province by 19,660 and set annual targets through publicly available three-year action plans, the letter says.

The province also agreed to report on progress on both the annual and nine-year target, according to the letter.

The federal housing minister added that the lack of progress in the province «jeopardizes the completion of both Ontario's housing targets, and Canada's national target.»