The City of Calgary is expecting Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) cash to come through, although receipt of the full amount appears to be in doubt.

The most recent HAF agreement ended on Oct. 27, and now there is a review period to see if Calgary still qualifies for the fourth and final payment of nearly $65 million.

Doubts around a potential final HAF instalment came to the fore after the Government of Alberta said that it would be putting forward rules limiting Calgary and Edmonton’s ability to make large-scale changes to land-use bylaws allowing for greater density.

At that time, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which administers the fund on behalf of Canada’s housing ministry, said that annual reports are due within 30 days of the contract’s end, and a decision would be made after that.

Reid Hendry, Chief Housing Officer with the City of Calgary, said that they will now put forward an “attestation” of what’s been accomplished on the housing front over the past year.

“The City of Calgary has blown the targets out of the water. We have done amazing, both as administration and as an industry to deliver much-needed housing to Calgarians,” Hendry said.

“Housing Accelerator Fund is something that we are really proud of here at the city for having supported a wide-ranging set of initiatives, everything from burying utility lines underground, fixing sidewalks, downtown office conversions, secondary suite programs.”

He said the contract outlines targets and initiatives. Hendry noted that all of the targets and most of the initiatives have been fulfilled – except one: Four units by right on a majority of residential parcels of land.

“We are very hopeful that the majority of the fourth payment will be kept intact, recognizing the fantastic work Calgary has done in delivering housing for, of course, in this context, not only Calgarians but Canadians.”

How much is a ‘majority’?

Hendry said the attestation is a narrative of how the City of Calgary believes it has done in hitting the targets and initiatives set out in the funding agreement.

The final payment, according to Hendry, would be $64.7 million.

“It would be our hope that we could achieve well above 90 per cent of that payment. Again, recognizing the initiatives and the targets that we have achieved, while also reflecting on initiatives that we may have fallen short of in the federal government’s eyes,” he said.

Mayor Farkas also reiterated the notion that he expects a majority of the funding to come through from the feds. He said in discussions with his federal counterparts, he believed the government has shifted its focus to an applicant’s deliverables when doling out money.

“So, I have full confidence that we’ll get the majority of the housing accelerator fund payment,” he said.

He said the province’s direction on dictating land use does throw into question how much their final allotment will be drawn down.

“I’ll be seeking recourse that should provincial direction around, say, density and development mean that municipalities in Alberta are not legally able to comply with our agreements,” he said.  

“I’ll certainly be going to the provincial government to ensure that we’re made whole.”