An investment of $250M was granted as part of the Financing of Water Infrastructure for the Creation of Affordable Housing (FIERH) program in order to support and encourage the development of a sufficient supply of quality housing for Quebec municipalities .
The announcement of the creation of the FIERH program was chaired by the minister responsible for the region, Andrée Laforest, on Wednesday. It therefore fulfills the commitment made by the government when it signed the Declaration of Reciprocity between Quebec and the municipalities on December 13.
“Our government makes the development of affordable housing a priority. It was essential for us to provide additional support to municipalities and, thus, to help increase the housing supply in all regions of Quebec,” says Ms. Laforest.
The amounts allocated to this new program will help stimulate the creation of affordable, social and student housing projects, without limiting the capacity of municipalities to meet the current and growing needs of their population. The government aims to encourage the establishment of water infrastructure and rain-fed infrastructure that is good for the environment, in order to encourage the construction of these new housing units.
“For municipalities, there is a problem with the connectivity of water, aqueduct, or wastewater treatment infrastructures. Sometimes it is expensive, there are additional costs for the promoters. So the program becomes really interesting at that point. Nearly 15% of the overall amount will go to the smallest municipalities, and 85% for the largest municipalities,” adds the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
First call for projects in September
A first call for projects will be made in the fall, while a second will possibly be launched next year. The mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, says that the administration has identified some land in the area where affordable housing could possibly be built, but that none of them have drinking water problems.
“Where we would really have a neighborhood, or land to optimize and which would have a drinking water problem and modifications to be made in this direction would be the railway zone. For that, it might be interesting to file because as we announced, we need to correct our infrastructure both in terms of sewers and water. In that case, there might be some interest. I am not announcing that it will be 100% affordable housing, but clearly that there will be a small percentage,” specifies Ms. Dufour.
The advent of the FIERH program was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités du Québec and the Union des municipalités du Québec.
