CIB launches Infrastructure for Housing Initiative
By Adam Freill
Construction Financing Infrastructure ResidentialProgram aims to accelerate development of infrastructure to enable housing in municipalities and Indigenous communities.
Housing Aerial (CNW Group/Canada Infrastructure Bank)
The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has introduced its Infrastructure for Housing Initiative (IHI), designed to help address infrastructure constraints that are limiting new housing construction.
With industry and municipal stakeholders emphasizing that more municipal infrastructure investment is a prerequisite to building more housing, the CIB has developed a financing tool for municipalities and Indigenous communities committed to building new infrastructure in support of new housing supply.
As an impact investor, CIB says it is looking to partner on eligible projects. These may include water, wastewater, stormwater, conveyance facilities; roads, bridges and accompanying civil work; transit such as electric buses, light-rail transit, stations and terminals; and clean power systems, including district energy, electricity distribution and storage.
“The housing challenge in Canada requires innovative thinking, new partnerships and a variety of financing supports to make progress,” stated Ehren Cory, CEO of Canada Infrastructure Bank. “We are pleased to have already advanced financing to a number of projects which will spur new housing such as district energy expansion, transit lines, broadband networks and water treatment facilities.”
CIB says its lending product helps municipalities and Indigenous communities by sharing in risks related to the timing of community growth, linking repayments to the number of housing units expected, and to increase as housing growth materializes. The program also provides access to credit and competitive interest rates for smaller municipalities that may not have access to capital markets or a provincial borrowing program.
The IHI program is also designed to work alongside existing federal supports for housing as part of the broader federal approach to address the housing shortage.
“With the CIB’s new Infrastructure for Housing Initiative, communities across the country will have access to financing that will help build the infrastructure needed to increase housing supply,” said Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, infrastructure and Communities. “This is a significant lever communities can now access to enable local investments in critical infrastructure from roads to public transit and water treatment systems.”
