Bruce Power is providing a financial boost towards affordable housing in Bruce County.
During Thursday’s council meeting, Bruce Power’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President James Scongack shared that housing is a continuing concern for many communities.
“You can go to any community across Canada, regardless of what industries are there, regardless of their geographic placement, a chances are two out of the three top issues that families and people will raise is a combination of affordability, and housing availability,” he said to council.
He said that the power company was committed to helping make housing easier to attain, starting with their seed fund that was started in the spring of 2024.
“I’m pleased to confirm that as we close the year off, we’ll be allocating $400,000 to counties, municipalities, and other projects that have applied for that municipal seed funding. The total fund available was $300,000, and we received $400,000 in asks,” Scongack explained. “We funded $400,000 in asks. So [it’s] a really exciting time for us.”
Bruce Power is also committing a further $1 million in funding for housing projects within the county.
“[We] know Bruce County has some ambitious plans for affordable housing in the future here. I want confirm and share with you Bruce Power’s commitment to one million dollars, for the county program around affordable housing. [I] recognize that some of the details of your next affordable housing development are to be determined but we really, wanted you to know up front that you had that support, and that that would be available. So we look forward to working on the particulars of that but we know you can count on a one million-dollar commitment for that. We’re very excited about that, we’re proud to play a part in that.”
The contribution follows a similar commitment made to Huron County Council at their meeting on November 20th.
“We recognize that our workforce spans very heavily in Bruce County, but also beyond the county, so we continue to work with Huron and Grey counties on their affordable housing programs.”