The Ontario government has pledged to provide the cities of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland with nearly $6.8 million in funding from its Building Faster Fund.

Announced last month, the funding is awarded to municipalities that achieve at least 80 percent of their provincially designated housing targets. St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland broke ground on nearly 2,000 new homes in 2024.

“We’re working closely with Mayor Siscoe, Mayor Diodati and Mayor Campion, and with local leadership in municipalities across Ontario, to get more homes built faster,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Today’s investment is just the latest step we are taking to protect our workers and communities by supporting continued growth in the Niagara Region and across Ontario.”

The municipalities being awarded through the Building Faster Fund are as follows:

• Catharines — $2,501,547 for achieving 85 percent of its housing target, breaking ground on 782 new housing units, approaching their provincial target of 917.
• Niagara Falls — $2,817,707 for achieving 116 percent of its housing target, breaking ground on 774 new housing units, exceeding their provincial target of 667.
• Welland — $1,467,045 for achieving 114 percent of its housing target, breaking ground on 408 new housing units, exceeding their provincial target of 358.

Announced in August 2023, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2-billion program that is designed to encourage municipalities to speed up municipal approval processes and get more homes built faster.

The fund rewards municipalities that make significant progress against their targets by providing funding for housing-enabling and community-enabling infrastructure. The province is also providing record funding to support housing-enabling infrastructure, including through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund and the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program.

On a year-to-date basis from January to May 2025, Ontario saw 6,977 rental starts, an increase of 25 percent compared to the same period in 2024. This is the second-highest level of rental starts on record for this time of the year, after 2023.

To help make way for more housing opportunities and support growing communities, the government is also extending the time that municipalities have to spend funds awarded through the Building Faster Fund to 2028.