TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford awarded the City of Mississauga up to $401.4 million Thursday under the Ontario Development Charge Reduction Program, tying the money to the city’s decision to cut development charges on new homes.The cheque was presented at the Brightwater site on Lake Ontario, where builders say the next phase includes Bridge House, a 220-unit condominium. Federal Parliamentary Secretary Jennifer McKelvie said the money flows through the Build Communities Strong Fund. Canada and Ontario announced a combined $8.8 billion over 10 years last March for housing-enabling infrastructure, split $4.4 billion each.Mississauga applied in June for about $2.2 billion against five projects. City documents listed a $650-million zero-emission MiWay transit maintenance and storage facility, which staff said could enable about 9,900 units by 2036, and a $500-million downtown transit mobility hub, plus transitway connections and bus platforms. The program can cover up to 90% of eligible costs. The province and the city did not immediately provide a project-by-project split of the $401.4 million..Mississauga has cut city development charges by 50% on residential projects and eliminated them on purpose-built rental units with one-bedroom-plus-den, two- or three-bedroom layouts, provided builders sign a 25-year rental tenure agreement. Mayor Carolyn Parrish said council chose “50% of something” over “100% of nothing.”The city’s apartment development charge is $38,316. The 50% incentive drops the city piece to about $19,158. Peel Region, school-board and GO Transit charges still apply. City figures have put those extra levies at about $59,884 on an apartment. All-in Peel-area charges on a single or semi can still run roughly $90,000–$110,000 before incentives.Ford said the city’s cut will lower the cost of building by up to $36,140 per home. Combined with the expanded HST rebate on eligible new homes — up to $130,000 — he said buyers in Mississauga could save as much as $166,140.That HST figure is a maximum, not a typical cheque. The expanded rebate applies to agreements signed April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027, and phases down on higher-priced homes. Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack called development charges “really a tax, a hidden tax.”Hamilton received $572 million after eliminating residential development charges outright and was told the stack with HST relief could exceed $230,000 per home. Mississauga cut 50% on most units, not 100%, and received the smaller award..WATCH: Ontario and Ottawa pay Hamilton $572M and Vaughan up to $697M to cut development charges.Ford and Parrish said the charge cuts and infrastructure spend can “unlock” 90,000 new homes. That is a city planning estimate, not a construction schedule. The city did not immediately provide a date by which those units would be completed.A June council motion extending waivers toward March 30, 2029, cited support for more than 20,000 units. Peel Region reported that as of March 31, 2026, it had agreements covering 5,548 units and about $144 million in grants-in-lieu of development charges — $7 million already paid and another $55 million due at occupancy.Flack said new-home sales were up 130% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 and that July single-family sales in the GTA rose 246% from a year earlier. He credited the HST rebate and Bills 17, 60 and 98.Those percentages rise off a collapsed 2025 base. BILD and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association put Ontario new-home sales at 3,645 in the second quarter of 2025 and 8,410 in the second quarter of 2026. GTA new-home sales in July 2025 were 395, a record low; July 2026 sales reached 1,018 — still 40% below the 10-year average of 1,707, according to Altus Group figures released through BILD. BILD’s Justin Sherwood has described the mid-decade slump as historic; Altus figures released through BILD put 2025 GTA new-home sales at 5,314, the lowest annual total in 45 years of records, after 2024 finished as the weakest year since 1990..Ford listed other provincial expenditure in the region: more than $164 million across Peel Region, including over $44 million in Mississauga, through the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program; the Hazel McCallion Line and Crosstown West Extension; the new Mississauga Hospital; and the $3.4-billion Primary Care Action Plan. He said more than 440,000 people have been connected to primary care since that plan began.He defended the province’s Lake Ontario shoreline sign, putting the cost at about $25,000 and the return at “$25 million of free advertising.” He told the room that if voters fail to re-elect Parrish, “it’s not going to be good for Mississauga.”After the speeches, Ford said: “Thank God we don’t have the media. No questions, no answers. We’re good to go.”The city and province did not release a cost for replacing the development-charge revenue now being waived.
