Calgary’s dance with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) over Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) cash took another pirouette Wednesday, with the sides clarifying a “pause” on upcoming funding.
On Tuesday, an email surfaced, addressed to Calgary city councillors and the mayor, from City of Calgary Chief Operating Officer Stuart Dalgleish, indicating that up to $129 million in federal funding was “paused pending further clarity on the status of citywide rezoning.”
Calgary city councillors are set to debate a Notice of Motion that would put the details of a potential repeal of citywide rezoning into action. That’s the potential action that may impact future federal housing funding.
The City of Calgary clarified the chain of events on Wednesday afternoon, via an emailed statement to media.
“On Friday, November 21st, The City of Calgary was informed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that future HAF payments were being paused pending further clarity on the status of Rezoning for Housing. That information was preliminary in nature when provided to Council,” the email statement read.
“Discussions evolved over the weekend with The City receiving an update from the federal government indicating future installments of HAF funding were ‘expected to be held’ pending further clarity on the status of citywide rezoning.”
The City of Calgary said they were currently in full compliance with the HAF agreement and they continue to implement initiative related to HAF funding.
The CMHC also responded to requests for clarification on Wednesday.
“Calgary’s Housing Accelerator funding has not been paused. We will reiterate, we are aware of Calgary’s proposal and are reviewing the details – no official decisions have been made on funding decisions,” read an email from Leonard Caitling with CMHC.
“We will also reiterate, we expect municipalities to fulfill their agreements. If a partner’s agreed upon commitments aren’t met or are reversed, this puts their HAF funding at risk.”
‘I felt like I was misled’: Coun. McLean
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean spoke with reporters outside council chambers on Wednesday afternoon. He said he felt like someone’s not coming clean on the funding certainty.
“I think I was pretty clear that I felt that I was misled or lied to on council. There were several times it was questioned whether the money was tied to blanket up zoning. And we were… varied, various responses, and there was flat noes that it wasn’t tied to,” he said.
“Now we hear from the feds that they’re saying it is tied to it, so somebody’s not telling the truth.”
Mclean said regardless of the state of funding, he’s dead set on a repeal.
“I vowed, like many others on council and ran on repealing blanket rezoning,” he said.
“Calgarians overwhelmingly hate it, so regardless of if you lose the funding, I want to continue to repeal.”
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that to his knowledge the CMHC funding has not been paused, and “we understand it’s a very live conversation.”
“We’re going to continue to be advocating with our federal counterparts about a made-in-Calgary solution, about ways that we can continue to build the housing that Calgarians need, but doing it in a much more targeted and community-informed approach,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to advocate for housing strategy that makes sense locally, here for Calgarians, while also delivering the affordability that is needed in this entire country.”
