Victoria to feds: we’re ready, where’s our $28M for housing? – Hope Standard

Sep 26, 2023

B.C. capital says it’s done more than what’s necessary to qualify for national accelerator funding

Saying it’s already gone over and above what was expected in streamlining the housing process, Victoria is calling on the federal government to pony up promised funds.

But the request for tens of millions of dollars comes as council is still slowing down some applications in the approval pipeline and as the city faces the prospect of no housing funds under Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s plan.

Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said Monday that she wrote to federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser last week, asking that the capital gets its “fair share” of federal housing funding. A monetary infusion to the tune of $28 million – through the federal Liberals’ Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) – is in order after the city executed what the mayor called the “nation-leading” Victoria Housing Strategy.