Close X
    Monday, November 25, 2024
    ADVT 
    National

    $115 M funding deal could help build 40,000 homes in Vancouver over decade: Trudeau

    Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 Dec, 2023 02:27 PM
    • $115 M funding deal could help build 40,000 homes in Vancouver over decade: Trudeau

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a $115 million federal funding deal with the City of Vancouver that he said could see more than 40,000 new homes built over the next decade.

    Trudeau said the deal would fast-track more than 3,200 new homes over the next three years.

    The announcement came on Friday after the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said housing starts in Canada fell 22 per cent in November, with starts down 39 per cent in Vancouver.

    Fraser said of the Vancouver deal that the cash from the government's Housing Accelerator Fund would cut barriers to building homes and "incentivize changes" at the municipal level.

    Trudeau said the Vancouver deal would bring the total number of housing units "unlocked" by the accelerator fund to almost 300,000.

    "This is well over the initial 100,000 we'd hoped to unlock when we announced the accelerator fund back in 2022," Trudeau said at a construction site on Vancouver's Westside where rental units are being built with the help of low-interest loans from the CMHC.

    A news release from Trudeau's office said Vancouver would streamline rezoning and expand affordable rental programs, and the initiatives would "significantly improve the way housing is built" in the city.

    Sim said the deal was not a "symbolic gesture", but a collective commitment to providing more homes and finding solutions to housing challenges.

    He said he and his wife had bought a home 20 years ago in the neighbourhood where the announcement took place, and the homes that once stood on the construction site had accommodated about 30 people in six households.

    "We're gonna see hundreds of people that have homes (here) in the neighbourhood that our family loved," he said of the project, which the CMHC said involved 118 units.

    Sim called the new federal funding "incredibly generous."

    The Opposition Conservatives said in a news release that Trudeau's Liberal government was "failing to build anywhere near enough homes."

    The Conservatives pointed to the CMHC data, which said the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in November came in at 212,624 units, down from 272,264 in October.

    "This massive decline in housing starts means the cost of rent or a mortgage will only go up for Canadians across the country," the statement said.

    Prev Next

    MORE National ARTICLES

    2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi

    2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi
    A second-degree murder charge has been laid in the death of an 18-year-old outside a Surrey high school last year. Homicide investigators say an 18-year-old man has been charged, but his name won’t be released because he was a youth at the time of the death.

    2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi

    B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report

    B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report
    Thousands of people in British Columbia saw their $1,000 tax-free COVID-19 benefit unfairly clawed back by the provincial government, says an ombudsperson report. So far, 12,000 people have been told to repay their B.C. Emergency Benefit that the government said was for workers who had been affected by the pandemic, Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said Tuesday. 

    B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report

    Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year

    Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year
    The federal government recorded a budgetary deficit of $8.2 billion between April and September, $3.9 billion of which was in September.  The finance department says in its monthly fiscal monitor that the deficit between April and September compared to a surplus of $1.7 billion during the same period last year. 

    Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year

    Locked out Rogers Communications workers in B.C. ratify five-year contract

    Locked out Rogers Communications workers in B.C. ratify five-year contract
    Nearly 300 Rogers Communications workers have voted strongly in favour of a new contract, ending a company lockout that began two weeks ago. The United Steelworkers union Local 1944, Unit 60, says in a statement that its members voted 96 per cent in favour of ratifying the tentative agreement reached last Friday.

    Locked out Rogers Communications workers in B.C. ratify five-year contract

    'Bank of mom and dad' study: B.C. high earners get housing boost if parents also own

    'Bank of mom and dad' study: B.C. high earners get housing boost if parents also own
    A Statistics Canada study into what it calls the "bank of mom and dad" shows home ownership among young high earners in British Columbia increases more than anywhere else in Canada if their parents are homeowners, too. The study also finds that nationally, people born in the 1990s are twice as likely to own a home if their parents are homeowners, compared to those whose parents are not.

    'Bank of mom and dad' study: B.C. high earners get housing boost if parents also own

    Port Moody Police arrest knife brandishing teen

    Port Moody Police arrest knife brandishing teen
    Police in Port Moody are investigating after arresting a 15-year-old who allegedly brandished a knife while chasing another teen through a crowd of students at a busy bus stop. Police say it happened yesterday afternoon (in the 13-hundred block of David Avenue) when a fight between two young people escalated into the armed chase.

    Port Moody Police arrest knife brandishing teen

    PrevNext