The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association is calling on the federal government to roll back proposed changes to the Canada Community Building Fund.
Its a federal program to have dollars flow through the provinces to the municipalities to build or repair infrastructure.
The proposed changes include language around affordable housing, which just adds more regulation and hoops to jump through according to SUMA.
Municipalities are responsible for 60 percent of the country’s infrastructure, with access to only 10 cents of every tax dollar.
“Our cities, towns, villages, resort villages, and northern municipalities recognize the need for more affordable housing,” stated SUMA President, Randy Goulden. “But the changes being proposed will only increase the administrative burden for municipalities without meaningfully addressing homelessness or affordability. Those crises were created by decades of under-investment by the federal and provincial governments in affordable housing.”
SUMA believes there should be dedicated funding for affordable housing, which can be used to create incentives for developers to build it.
