Kitchener gets $14M from Ontario for meeting housing targets

Kitchener has received $14 million from the Ontario government for meeting its 2023 housing targets.

It's part of the province's Building Faster Fund,a three-year, $1.2-billion fund that gives financial rewards to municipalities.

The city was credited with breaking ground on 3,579 new housing units last year.

Premier Doug Ford was at city hall Thursday morning to make the announcement along with local Progressive Conservative MPPs Mike Harris, Jess Dixon and Brian Riddell.

"This is good, really good. And last year the mayor and Kitchener council, they hit it out of the park," Ford said of the city meeting its housing target.

"The $14 million can be used by the city for community development and infrastructure projects that lay the groundwork for more housing."

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic called the funding exciting, and said the partnership between himself and the premier has been "exactly the kind of relationship that should exist between the leaders of two orders of government working together with our teams to get things done and build a better Kitchener and build a better Ontario together."

Vrbanovic said council and city staff have been "tireless" in their efforts to work with provincial and federal levels of government to build homes in the city.

"We now have further momentum to achieve our shared goals to build more homes now," Vrbanovic said of the funding during Thursday's announcement. "This will be a great support for the infrastructure needed to get housing built."

Kitchener's not the first local city to receive funding through theBuilding Faster Fund. In March, Guelph received $4.68 millionafter the ground was brokenon 1,287 new housing units last year.