Ford, Carney announce development charge cuts, $8.8B to spur housing builds in Ontario
Posted on: Mar 30, 2026 19:10 IST | Posted by: Cbc
Toronto city manager Olivia chuck, undercoat government minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are holding a joint news conference in Etobicoke Monday.
Ontario and Ottawa will match billions of dollars in local infrastructure spending and cut housing development charges in an effort to spur new builds, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford announced Monday.
Ford and Carney announced the agreement for their governments to each spend $4.4 billion on housing-related infrastructure over the next ten years, at a joint news conference alongside Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow in Etobicoke.
The deal will also cut development charges in half for three years, Carney said. Development charges are used by municipalities to pay for infrastructure that supports housing, like roads, sewers and water.
The funding deal is the first to be announced through the federal government's Build Communities Strong Fund and is meant to help municipalities cut development fees by 50 per cent for the next three years.
Experts warn municipal development fees have ballooned and inflated the cost of homebuilding in recent years, making it harder to build much-needed supply.
You can watch the news conference live in this story.
The deal comes after Ford’s government announced plans in its newly-tabled budget to temporarily remove the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for buyers of new homes. The 13-per-cent tax will be removed from new homes valued up to $1 million from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027.
That’s on top of an existing HST rebate for first-time buyers of new homes valued up to $1 million, announced last year by the provincial and federal governments.
The Ford government announced in 2022 that it planned to get 1.5 million more homes built in the province by 2031. The province has since backed off that goal, which it is not on track to meet, saying it is now a soft target.
Ottawa recently announced it was earmarking $1.7 billion for all provinces and territories to boost housing supply however they see fit.
Ford and Chow are also appearing together after having been at odds this month over Ford's plan to take over city-owned land at Billy Bishop airport.
Ford said last week that the federal government, which governs the airport in a tripartite agreement with the city and Toronto Port Authority, is on board with the province's plan.
Canada's Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon has said he would work with the province "to design a path forward." Chow and city council voted last week to formally oppose the takeover.
More to come.
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