Housing Accelerator Fund
The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) received a grant of approximately $2.5 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) initiative with the goal of building more homes, faster. Our successful application included an Action Plan committing to seven initiatives that aim to speed up approvals and enable a variety of housing to meet the diverse needs of the resort community, with a focus on employee housing.
To receive the full funding amount, we are required to:
- comply with the Housing Accelerator Fund funding terms and conditions,
- report satisfactory progress to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) with our Action Plan initiatives (see below), housing targets and other projects that receive HAF funding,
- for the final part of the funding, we need to achieve our targets for housing supply growth.
RMOW Housing Accelerator Fund Action Plan initiatives
- Establish an employee housing funding and financial strategy: Develop a funding and financing strategy to use and expand our financing tools will contribute to the development of new employee housing projects on municipal land.
- Leverage municipal and underused lands for housing: Create a comprehensive inventory of vacant and underused lands and assess their suitability for new housing development to support the creation of a municipal land strategy.
- Develop a Whistler Creek West Neighbourhood Plan: Establish a vision for the Whistler Creek West Neighbourhood. This plan is to update land-use and development opportunities supporting diverse housing, employment space, transportation and community amenities.
- Prioritize employee housing building and development applications: Develop a policy to prioritize the review of building and development applications that contribute to meeting Whistler’s housing needs, especially for employee housing, aim to increase transparency for the application review processes, provide clear criteria for applicants, and ensure staff are appropriately allocated to reduce review wait times. See our new policy on prioritized applications: Council Policy G-30 Housing Needs Priority Application Review (PDF).
- Increase process efficiency in the building permit process: Improve building permit processing times and resourcing by preparing to move to an e-permitting system to allow for easier tracking and improved data collection and management. This also involves updating our Building and Plumbing Regulation Bylaw, fees and charges, and improving the application workflow to make it more efficient.
- Comprehensive review of our development fees and charges: Reviewing and updating Whistler’s Development Cost Charges (DCC) is to improve transparency and encourage missing middle and multi-unit dwellings.
- Review infrastructure needs and investment plans to accelerate the pace of housing developments: Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the existing sewer and water systems to prepare for future community growth.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF)?
In March 2023, the Government of Canada announced the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF); it is administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The fund’s $4.4 billion supports and incentivizes community efforts to get more homes built faster and speed up local approvals and building processes. The HAF also aims to support the development of complete, low-carbon, and climate-resilient communities that are affordable, inclusive, equitable and diverse.
When and how can the funds be used?
We received a 25 per cent upfront advance to begin our HAF Action Plan initiatives. The remaining funding will be disbursed in installments annually over the next three years, provided the terms and conditions of the contribution agreement are met. The funding can be used in the following four areas:
- implementing the initiatives;
- supporting delivery of affordable housing;
- building infrastructure to support housing; and/or
- developing community related infrastructure to support housing (amenities).