With a greater focus on more housing density, upzoning, homes near transit and affordable housing, we are going to get more homes built for Canadians at prices they can afford. Over the last two years, funding agreements through the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) have incentivized and rewarded local governments for being ambitious in their approaches to increasing housing supply and accelerating development timelines. In the first year of the HAF, local governments who received funding issued 160,585 residential building permits, which was 22,000 more than expected. These early results show the potential of HAF to cut through red tape and fast track housing development in communities right across Canada.

The HAF was introduced to reward ambitious approaches from local governments. The HAF was also meant to be a transparent program, with regular reporting mechanisms, and for the ability for Canadians to see where there were successes, and where there was more work to be done.

Today, the Government of Canada announced the launch of the HAF Progress Tracker, the latest tool for public tracking of HAF progress in communities throughout Canada, providing a comprehensive overview of HAF results over the first year of the program. Building on the publication of HAF Action Plan Summaries for large/urban municipalities, the HAF Progress Tracker will provide increased transparency and accountability on the work being done by local governments to meet the obligations of their HAF agreements.