Housing agreement finally official

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This article was published 03/07/2024 (501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The federal government officially announced the City of Brandon’s participation in the Housing Accelerator Fund program on Tuesday, confirming city staff’s prior statement that the Wheat City stands to gain around $6.2 million if it meets its housing targets.

“This is just a continuation of a long discussion we’ve had in the community,” Mayor Jeff Fawcett said Tuesday. “We are looking forward to seeing some shovels in the ground.”

It has been known for months that Brandon would be participating in the program, but city staff previously said they could not disclose the terms of the agreement until it was officially announced.

However, at the June 17 Brandon City Council meeting, director of planning and buildings Ryan Nickel said he’d received permission to disclose that Brandon was to receive $6,248,360 from the fund and a target to build around 50 extra dwelling units a year with the money.

Tuesday’s release from the federal government confirms the $6.2-million figure and lists Brandon’s housing target at 168 homes over the next three years — 56 per year. Last year, when Brandon’s application was first submitted, Nickel had said the city was looking to get $7.2 million from the program.

“It’s a little much ado about nothing now, but it is great to actually finally have it out there,” Fawcett said. “We didn’t like to have to sort of skirt around the edges, but I think we were very public with everything we could be.”

The mayor said he wasn’t disappointed that the announcement didn’t come with a visit from federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser like in other participating cities and that he has had the opportunity to speak with the minister.

Even though Brandon’s funding level is much smaller than other participants, like Winnipeg’s $122 million, Fawcett said that because Brandon was already pursuing some of these initiatives, the $6.2 million serves as an enhancement toward those efforts.

“There’s a lot of communities that are starting well behind where we already were for regulatory barriers, red tape, that kind of thing,” Fawcett said. “That’s probably one of the reasons that we wouldn’t have received the same amount as some of those big centres, which are taking on big, big things.”

He said much of Brandon is already zoned the way the program recommends. Brandon has also already hired a housing liaison, established growth areas and had been working on tweaking its development cost charges.

With this year’s federal budget having included a Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund for housing-related infrastructure projects, Fawcett said the city is going to investigate what it can apply for from that.

In a media release, Fraser said his government was “excited and proud” to announce its agreement with Brandon.

“With initiatives like allowing four units as-of-right, fostering stronger relationships with builders, and providing more incentives for affordable homes, the city will ensure that Brandon has more of the kind of homes we need to tackle the housing crisis,” Fraser said.

“We will keep working with cities, mayors, Indigenous partners and all levels of government to get more homes built for Canadians at prices they can afford.”

Brandon’s application included several measures aimed at speeding up housing developments, including downtown market housing and city-wide affordable housing incentive programs.

Councillors started a debate over proposed residential zoning changes and the establishment of a density bonus program at the June 17 council meeting, but a decision was deferred after some councillors expressed concerns over city staff’s proposal to reduce parking minimums and make it easier to construct triplexes and fourplexes without holding public hearings.

City clerk Renee Sigurdson confirmed Tuesday that discussion would pick up again at the next meeting on July 8.

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Nickel said other initiatives the city has advanced as part of its application to the fund include changing its land assembly policy to purchase properties that can be used for housing development, changing the timing of when developers are due to pay development cost charges to be later in the process and approving a new city plan.

“We’re well on the way on a majority of our actions and we’re hoping to wrap up the last few up before 2025,” Nickel said.

So far, the city has received an initial payment of $1,562,090 from the program. Two more payments worth the same amount will be received if the city implements all the items from its action plan. A final payment will be received if Brandon meets that 168-home target.

By email, Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire said that under the Trudeau government, Canada is building fewer homes than in the 1970s and that the monthly cost of rent has risen by more than $250.

“That’s why it’s great to see strong local leadership from the City of Brandon, taking big steps forward to address the growing need for new, affordable homes in our region,” Maguire said.

“This news represents an exciting opportunity for the City of Brandon despite all the troubling trends we’ve seen around housing across the country.”

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