The City of Moose Jaw will not be receiving funding under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) Housing Accelerator Fund. 

According to a report to city council on Monday night, CMHC notified the city on Feb. 29 that Moose Jaw was not selected to receive funding under the program. 

The grant funding goes towards affordable, inclusive, equitable and climate-resilient housing. Moose Jaw applied for $19 million to achieve 11 initiatives set out in an action plan by the city.  

Those 11 initiatives included: 

  • Site preparation for residential use of the former hospital site 
  • A mixed market townhouse project at Westheath 
  • New housing for expansion of 15 Wing Air Training Program. 
  • A housing feasibility study for student campus housing. 
  • Infrastructure condition and capacity analysis to support housing developing in downtown 
  • A new priority rezoning policy 
  • Reuse of school sites for residential developing and assessment of suitability. 
  • An infrastructure servicing plan and housing feasibility report for Caribou Street East. 
  • The redevelopment of the Town n Country Mall. 
  • Gabriel Housing Corporation 
  • Implementation of support. 

The proposed plan would see an additional 779 housing units built within three years. 

Upon learning that the city was competing with much larger centres through Canada, Coun. Crystal Froese said it really wasn’t a fair competition. 

“It’s unfortunate that there’s not separate categories because our needs, of course, are very different than that of larger cities. That’s really too bad,” said Froese. 

The report says city administration met with member of the CMHC on March 13 to find other ways to support the city's initiatives. However, the city did not receive answers about how the applications were assessed or why the city was not selected. 

Director of Planning and Development Michelle Sanson said it is unlikely that the grant will come up again next year. 

“We asked about that as well and, unfortunately, they weren’t able to provide an answer on that. It didn’t sound like it, so they couldn’t give us an answer really. I’m not anticipating it though,” explained Sanson. 

CMHC had told the city that they received 544 applications for funding and only 178 applications were successful. They also indicated that it was a competitive process and the applications doubled the $4 billion available in funding.