THUNDER BAY – City leaders broadcast a striking optimism that Thunder Bay is set for a population and housing boom at a Friday press conference.
Mayor Ken Boshcoff and director of development services Joel DePeuter highlighted the city’s success in meeting provincial housing goals, and a potentially game-changing application for up to $46 million in federal housing funds.
If that eye-popping windfall comes through, city leaders said it could support the construction of more than 2,100 new housing units in just three years – a pace of development unheard-of in the city's recent history.
“This is a day that we should mark as maybe the start of a new era,” Boshcoff said.
TBnewswatch reported earlier this week that Thunder Bay was among the few Ontario municipalities to meet its provincial housing target in 2023.
The CMHC tracked 167 new housing starts in the city as of October, beating the provincial target of 161.
As a result, the city will be eligible for dollars from Ontario’s new “Building Faster Fund.”
The province is still finalizing its funding formula after hearing feedback from municipal groups, but city staff expect Thunder Bay to receive over $600,000.
City councillors have questioned the impact of that level of funding, representing fractions of a percentage point on the city’s annual budget.
On Friday, the city instead emphasized potential gains from its application for up to $46 million through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.
After applying for the funding earlier this year, Boshcoff said the city has not yet heard back from the feds.
City leaders say over 2,100 new units could be started in three years, if that application is approved in full. Without the funding, the city says the number would be closer to 500.
It’s a goal that’s beyond ambitious, requiring the pace of housing construction to roughly quadruple.
Director of development services Joel DePeuter expressed confidence it could be done.
First, he said the CMHC figure of 167 housing starts undersells progress, with the city issuing building permits for 290 residential units as of October, nearly doubling its five-year average.
Construction is proceeding on all of those housing projects, he indicated.
The fact that over 230 of those involved multi-unit builds is “a very good shift,” helping to diversify local housing options, DePeuter added.
That includes a 60-unit apartment development on Golf Links Road, with plans for a second 60-unit build next year.
Boshcoff said those numbers show the city’s housing goals “aren't just hopeful things, these are realities.”
He noted that expansions to supportive and transitional housing through the Thunder Bay DSSAB and other agencies will help boost the city's housing numbers and form a crucial part of the mix of housing the city needs.
Secondly, DePeuter said the accelerator funding would support new initiatives including grants of $20,000 or more per unit to developers that would strongly incentivize more construction.
The incentives would ramp up even higher for certain types of builds governments want to encourage, like affordable units and those that represent urban infill.
Other proposed initiatives in the city’s application to the fund include hiring an affordable housing navigator, and programs supporting conversion of vacant commercial and industrial lands.
The city had already taken steps like loosening zoning rules, making it easier to build four-plexes, backyard homes, and additions to existing homes, for example.
City leaders also pointed to an emerging mining boom, saying the city is “on the verge of a once-in-a-generation opportunity for exponential growth in the mining sector” related to critical minerals like lithium and palladium.
The city indicated new mine construction is expected to peak in 2027-2028, bringing an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 new jobs in operations and construction across the region.
“The operative word is that the mining boom is real,” said Boshcoff. “There's no way we just want workers to fly in here and go back somewhere else. We want them to bring their families and settle down and make a great life.”
“The city is ready, our teams are ready. All I can say is we’re poised to accept investment, development, and more people.”
City plans will depend on interest from the private sector, and potentially non-profits, in actually building the units.
Silvio Di Gregorio, a local housing developer who heads Di Gregorio Developments and is a treasurer with Bruno’s Contracting, said the city’s goals are lofty but potentially achievable, with the right incentives.
“There's quite a pent-up demand for housing, both in multi-unit and in single-family residential,” he said. “If you’re talking $20,000 or $30,000 [per unit], that's probably 10 to 15 per cent of the cost of the multiple units. A 10 to 15 per cent reduction in the cost should motivate the builders to do that, I would think.”
“That doesn't necessarily mean 2,100 single-family homes, which would be quite an obstacle. But… it could be made up of five or six apartment buildings each year having 100 units each – that is not unrealistic to do.”
Meeting the target would likely require help from builders based outside of Thunder Bay, he added.
Di Gregorio said the lack of fully-serviced lots for single-family homes is one major barrier to further growth.
City staff have argued Thunder Bay has sufficient lots available for development, but is also undertaking a study into the city’s land needs for housing, and developing a secondary plan for the Parkdale area.
The city’s application to the accelerator program sells Thunder Bay as having plenty of land for further growth, unlike many Southern Ontario cities whose infrastructure and housing lands are close to maxed out.
“We feel the federal housing dollar will go further in Thunder Bay – it makes sense to invest in Thunder Bay where there's a lot of room for growth,” said DePeuter.
Boshcoff said the city will be leaning on local MPs Patty Hajdu and Marcus Powlowski to champion its application.
“This will be the first really strong and respectfully begging ask of our MPs, because now the chips are down,” he said. “This money is critical. So we need them more than ever before.”
While there is not a firm timeline for a response, Boshcoff said he expects the federal government to deal with the accelerator applications relatively quickly.
