The City of Sarnia has been awarded $400,000 from the province under the $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, alongside Housing Minister Rob Flack and Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey, made the announcement during a stop at city hall Thursday morning.
The money, given to municipalities that achieve at least 80 per cent of their provincially designated housing targets, is the second installment paid to the city.
Premier Ford addressed the crowd, telling them the city broke ground on an impressive 164 new homes last year, amounting to 198 per cent of its 2024 housing target.
"Folks, we all know this is a serious time for our province," said Ford. "President Trump's tariffs are taking aim at Ontario, causing economic uncertainty and hurting families and businesses. Here in Sarnia home to the Blue Water Bridge, Canada's second busiest commercial border crossing, we're seeing the impacts of that uncertainty first-hand. Our government was elected on a promise to protect Ontario and stand up for families, workers and companies in communities across the province. We're doing everything in our power to cut red tape. We're investing more than $200 billion under our plan to build so we can prepare for growth and keep workers on the job no matter what."
The city's $400,000 cheque from 2023 was passed along to the County of Lambton for social and affordable housing.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the 2024 installment will support the infrastructure needed to construct more homes in Sarnia.
This is in addition to the $8 million allocated to Sarnia under the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which was recently expanded by $1.6 billion to a total of $4 billion.
He said it's much-needed given the city's recent population growth.
"This money will be going to help develop the only area that we can expand in the city, to the east, in the Wellington Street and Modeland Road area," said Bradley. "About 3,000 housing units can be created out of this money, which is huge. It's all sorts of diversity of housing units. This will make a difference. The $400,000 is on top of $7 million we received last year for the infrastructure of this road. This is a groundbreaking move forward for this community."
Bradley said the goal is to have the area serviced and up and running within the next year or two.
He said this will open up the community to hundreds of new jobs.
"It's about all of these things coming together," he said. "This will help us develop the structure and the Health Hart Hub which is vitally important to this community. All of these things are integrated, it's a jigsaw puzzle. It's not just one announcement, it's a number of announcements that are building a better community and a better province."
Premier Ford also highlighted other recent announcements that are continuing to benefit Sarnia.
"We're investing almost $32 million to replace the CNR bridge on Highway 40, with construction already started," he said. "We're providing over $12 million for Bluewater Health's community addictions hub, and we're building the new Trillium Villa Nursing home. We're expanding schools, like the addition to Errol Village Public School, making room for nearly 50 more students."
Meanwhile, Premier Ford was met by protesters during a private stop later in the day.
There were about a dozen people carrying signs, speaking out against Ontario Bill 5 which is the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.
The bill gives the province the power to suspend provincial and municipal laws and remove some environmental protections for selected projects in areas deemed to have economic importance.
Opponents are concerned about the impacts to the environment and Ontario workers.
