Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser is warning the City of Burnaby that its $43 million allotment of housing funding could be in jeopardy if the Conservative Party wins next year’s election.
Fraser wrote Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley a letter Oct. 30 citing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent comments that he would cut the Liberal’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
Poilievre said the money from the fund would be re-allocated to pay for federal tax cuts on building new homes.
Burnaby was awarded $43.4 million over four years from the Housing Accelerator Fund last December.
“These funds went to your community based on your ambitious commitments that will make it easier and faster to build homes,” Fraser wrote.
“By your analysis, you have told us that this funding will lead to an additional 11,950 permits issued for new homes in your community over a 10-year period,” he added, asking the city to tell him more about what would happen if the Conservatives cut the funding.
Fraser also asked the mayor to “inform members of (his) community about the impact this cut would have.”
The mayor has until Friday, Nov. 8 to give the minister feedback.
Numbers behind Burnaby’s Housing Accelerator funding
As of August this year, Burnaby has spent almost $980,000 or 9% of the overall 2024 Housing Accelerator Fund budget, according to a recent staff report to council.
“Some underspending should be expected in Year 1 due to program ramp-up requirements, including recruitment time, program planning for infrastructure, issuing requests for proposals, and the time required for other project management tasks,” stated the report.
Staff plan to carry any unspent money over to next year.
Burnaby has allocated the $43 million as such:
- 31% for new staff
- 3% for non-staff operating costs, such as consulting
- 66% for capital projects, including new technology to assist in streamlining development approvals and infrastructure projects required to support building more housing
