Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson, joined by Councillor Phil St-Jean and members of municipal staff, held a meeting on Wednesday morning regarding the recent failure of their application to the Housing Accelerator Fund to support housing development.
The County applied for $14.2 million through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund last year after council approved the Prince Edward County Housing Plan 2023 to 2028 in May.
Mayor Ferguson expressed his disappointment in the application’s failure, noting a severe lack of funding offered to rural communities compared to urban centers by the fund.
“I understand the housing needs in our biggest cities are great, but completely shutting out rural communities is unacceptable,” said Mayor Ferguson. “Our $14 million ‘ask’ might not seem like a big deal for big cities that are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars. But an investment on that scale could have been transformational for rural communities.”
Due to having a population above 10,000 residents, Prince Edward County was required to apply through the urban application stream. According to an analysis by Prince Edward County, only two rural Ontario municipalities have been awarded funding in this stream, for a total of $12 million of the $3.5 billion awarded to date.
Mayor Ferguson also said he had been in contact with other local municipalities that had been denied funding though the program, including Belleville and Quinte West.
The $14.2 million funding request was intended to support a number of housing initiatives throughout the county, including the purchase of the Queen Elizabeth School property with plans to redevelop the property with both affordable housing and a community resource centre.
Out of the total funding ask, $1.3 million was earmarked for the purchase of the Queen Elizabeth School property. Despite the loss of funding, Mayor Ferguson said there are no plans to abort the project, and that they still plan to purchase the school.
Other projects expected to benefit from the funding included the Secondary Suites Program and incentives for developers to build affordable housing. The programs are currently expected to continue, but at a reduced scale due to the reduced available funding.
Municipal staff are preparing a detailed report on the effects the lack of funding will have on existing projects, which will be presented to council members during the committee of the whole meeting to be held on April 10.
