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Ontario Funding Social Housing Repairs and Retrofits in Toronto

Province Investing More Than $600 Million in Affordable Housing Across the City

May 9, 2017 9:15 A.M.
Ministry of Housing

Ontario is investing more than $600 million dollars over the next three years in affordable and sustainable housing in Toronto, including millions more for repairs and retrofits to social housing buildings.

Housing Minister Chris Ballard was at 26 Grenville Street — provincial land that will be unlocked to build new affordable rental units — to highlight investments that the province is making.

In 2016-17, Ontario is contributing $42.9 million to the City of Toronto for repairs and retrofits to 26 social housing buildings, with all funds committed by March 31, 2017 and repairs to be completed by March 31, 2018. This investment will allow for the installation of energy-efficient boilers, windows, and lighting as well as the insulation of outer walls and mechanical systems.

These investments are part of Ontario's Social Housing Apartment Retrofit Program (SHARP). The program is part of Ontario's plan to fight climate change by investing proceeds from its carbon market into actions that help households and businesses reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money on energy costs.

Over the next three years, the city will receive more than $130 million in additional funding for social housing repairs through the program.

The province is also:

Investing $340 million over the next three years for homelessness prevention to help Toronto's most vulnerable residents
Investing $130 million over the next three years to build and expand affordable housing options for people in Toronto
As part of Ontario's Fair Housing Plan, unlocking provincial land worth up to $100 million to build new affordable rental units in the city, with pilots at 27 Grosvenor Street and 26 Grenville Street in Toronto.
Ensuring everyone in Ontario has a safe and affordable place to call home is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.

Quick Facts

Over the next three years, Ontario will invest $2 billion dollars in affordable and sustainable housing across the province.
Leveraging surplus provincial lands builds on an agreement reached previously with the City of Toronto to ensure a minimum of 20 per cent of residential units within the West Don Lands are available for affordable rental, with an additional 5 per cent of units for affordable ownership. The West Don Lands is one of the sites in Toronto being considered for the pilot.
By establishing a program to dispose of surplus provincial land sites at below market value, the province will create a mechanism to leverage new, permanent, sustainable, and affordable housing units as part of the development of those lands. The province will work with municipalities, the housing sector, and other interested parties to confirm the pilot sites and final program design.
A 2012 Deutsche Bank study [PDF] found that every $1 million invested in energy efficiency-related retrofits in multi-family affordable housing buildings generated between $1.3 million and $3.9 million in energy savings, improving both the sustainability of those buildings and the quality of life of their residents.

https://news.ontario.ca/mho/en/2017/05/ontario-funding-social-housing-repairs-and-retrofits-in-toronto.html

cc: SlowlybtSurely

Please who is in Winnipeg? What are the costs of living like in the city ? What are the job prospects like? Which industry is the most active in terms of jobs? Kindly assist with these information and more on Winnipeg.
Thank you.

amokemi:
Please who is in Winnipeg? What are the costs of living like in the city ? What are the job prospects like? Which industry is the most active in terms of jobs? Kindly assist with these information and more on Winnipeg.
Thank you.

I do not currently live there, but cost of living is definitly cheaper..most likely one of the cheapest popular cities to live in. Job prospect would depend on the industry you are looking at. e.g you would hardly find investment banking jobs or say very high level technology in a place like Winnipeg, but you would find the regular healthcare, IT and /accounting/finance, agriculture, sales e.t.c all popular. Some of these jobs are even more well paying than in bigger cities. You can google to find more info specific to your career of choice.

oohunt:
Do we have any IT professionals that can share their experiences like:

* Your work experience in Nija.

* Did you have to do a Diploma course or certification to get a job in Canada?

* How long it took to get a job in IT?

* How quickly did you catch up at work?

* Have you ever been fired for not doing your job well?

* Did you switch careers from IT? To what and why? Was it a good decision?

I have done all sorts that I can easily classify under NOC 2171 - IT Consultant. Have done a bit a web development as well. However, my Masters degree is in Web Technologies and Security. Anyone with IT Security experience in Canada?? I am wondering if this will be the right opportunity for me to develop that part of my career.

Please can any of the experienced people in the house answer this? In my case I have a first degree in IT but no working experience in IT, I have work experience in banking. Would a diploma course in IT get me back on track and possibly get me a job? Advice is needed on this path

Hello everyone. I landed last month in Calgary. Its been a struggle trying to post because I've been quite busy but i'll try to share my experience thus far.
I have a toddler and I am currently pregnant so we decided not to take a direct flight from Nigeria. We flew medview to London and spent a couple of days there then flew air canada to Calgary. Medview........let's just say that would be the first and last time we would fly them. They were totally disorganized at the Lagos airport in terms of checking in passengers and there was so much uproar which ended up in the flight being delayed by over an hour. However, the aircraft we used was quite large and the leg room in economy was quite spacious and they made up for all the drama with the food which was quite savoury especially if you have a taste for Nigerian cuisine....they had fried and jollof rice (fried rice wasn't great at all, jollof was nice), pounded yam and egusi, amala and ewedu. The pilot more than made up for the delayed departure by landing us in Gatwick only 5 mins later than schedule. Down sides - no in flight entertainment.

Air Canada was good. Aircraft was lovely, in flight entertainment, cabin crew and meals were lovely as well. They are also kid friendly and leg room was good. Flight was smooth until landing which became quite turbulent due to the weather. Flight duration was 8.5 hrs.

At YYC, it took about 20-30 mins to get from the aircraft, go through immigration and pick up our baggage. Then we headed to the department that handles landing and had to wait for about 2hrs before it got to our turn. We landed on a Sunday so I don't know if that was the reason for the long wait. However, I realized that if one of us went to that department and took a number while the other picked up the bags, it would have accelerated things a bit as that was what some people did. Landing took about 5-10 mins.

We had booked a hotel nearby to stay for the first night and they sent us a pick up at the airport. We had found an apartment 2 months earlier on rentfaster.ca and a friend had helped view it and pay a deposit on our behalf and we were to sign the lease which was to start the day after our arrival. We had intended to rent a car the next day, go to meet with the landlord at our apartment, inspect and sign the lease then go get a few necessities since the apartment was unfurnished. However, come morning we realized that we couldn't rent a car because we required a credit card which we did not have. Let's just say things started getting a bit frustrating from that point on..........mostly because moving around is expensive by uber or cabs and although where we live has a good transit system, moving around with a toddler and a bump ism't exactly a glass of wine but oh well, so far so good. Lesson to be learnt - land with a functional credit card and plan to rent a car or buy one as soon as you can especially if you have a family. Then proceed to commence the process for obtaining a drivers license for the province in which you reside.

As regards documentation, we got everything done in the first week...health cards, social insurance numbers, etc. It isn't a complicated process at all.

My impression of Canada (through the eyes of Calgary) thus far........Its a diverse community and most people are pleasant. They make eye contact with you and converse easily. No one has a problem understanding you if you speak proper English with your Nigerian accent. Everyone we have met or spoken to on the phone always always ask you how to correctly pronounce your name and usually get it on the first or second try. Calgary seems lovely to me, the kind of place I would like to raise my kids in.

A few things I have learnt thus far......mobile data plans zap at the speed of light here. Getting a home internet is a huge help in that regard. The weather is actually good this time of year. Child care is expensive so for families with preschoolers, factor that in as a top priority.

@ Vcole, thanks a million for the heads up. Wishing you all the best as you guys settle down.

vcole:
We had intended to rent a car the next day, go to meet with the landlord at our apartment, inspect and sign the lease then go get a few necessities since the apartment was unfurnished. However, come morning we realized that we couldn't rent a car because we required a credit card which we did not have. Let's just say things started getting a bit frustrating from that point on..........mostly because moving around is expensive by uber or cabs and although where we live has a good transit system, moving around with a toddler and a bump ism't exactly a glass of wine but oh well, so far so good. Lesson to be learnt - land with a functional credit card and plan to rent a car or buy one as soon as you can especially if you have a family. Then proceed to commence the process for obtaining a drivers license for the province in which you reside.

A few things I have learnt thus far......mobile data plans zap at the speed of light here. Getting a home internet is a huge help in that regard. The weather is actually good this time of year. Child care is expensive so for families with preschoolers, factor that in as a top priority.

Good advise, but If one has never driven in US/Canada, then great care should be taken while driving.
It takes months to acclimatize to the driving conditions in a big city like Calgary. The merging lane rules, yield on solid green, driving through CT rail tracks, the right of way rules within subdivisions, one way rules e.t.c could be very confusing and lead to some serious accidents. You can also pick up a drivers handout from any registry for free. You would learn alot from it even before going for the knowledge and road test to obtain your operator's license

if you are going to stay within Calgary, freedom mobile/wind would be the cheapest option, but the network roams when you leave big cities.

Welcome to Calgary Vcole.

yungreezy:


Please can any of the experienced people in the house answer this? In my case I have a first degree in IT but no working experience in IT, I have work experience in banking. Would a diploma course in IT get me back on track and possibly get me a job? Advice is needed on this path

Yes. it would get you back on track. I worked in a bank for years in the UK, but the amount being offered was very low compared to my previous earnings back in the UK so i returned to my first love i.e Engineering. I had to go back to school though as my engineering degree from Nigeria was hardly recognized.

I met a naija bros in University too back then. The bros had lots of SAP professional certificates from nigeria. He has a PMP too, but still returned to school to upgrade. Some very few are lucky though by getting jobs at their level of expertise without upgrading at a college or uni...

egariyi:

Thanks for all the information shared so far. God bless all contributors here. I am a canny hopeful too but yet to decide on province. However, I would like to add that contribution should also include accommodation cost - all types available in most cities. This will help in planning/decision as this is going to be the most expensive household spend on monthly basis. it will also help in planning for jobs when all factors are being considered prior to acceptance.

Accomodation cost would vary accross cities within a province. E.g a condo you might rent for $1200 a month in calgary might go for $950 in lethbridge and $1000 in Saskatoon. I believe the bigger a city is, then the higher the cost of living would be. The best place to research accomodation cost for a particular city or town within a particular province would be on Kijiji.

SlowlybtSurely:


Seniors, please help ooo.

Salford, where those pics naw?

I would keep them coming soon.

salford:

I do not currently live there, but cost of living is definitly cheaper..most likely one of the cheapest popular cities to live in. Job prospect would depend on the industry you are looking at. e.g you would hardly find investment banking jobs or say very high level technology in a place like Winnipeg, but you would find the regular healthcare, IT and /accounting/finance, agriculture, sales e.t.c all popular. Some of these jobs are even more well paying than in bigger cities. You can google to find more info specific to your career of choice.

Thank you Salford. I appreciate

Thank you for sharing your experience Vcole. Best wishes for you and your family as you settle in. Please as much as you are chanced, kindly give us updates on your settling in and we hope to learn a few things from you.

God's Blessings.

This thread is surely a blessing and as a potential PR I'm sure to follow.

Good day everyone. I guess my own landing eexperience in Calgary is similar to that of Vcole. I was 33 weeks pregnant and flew KLM to Calgary. I travelled with my husband and two active toddlers. The immigration / clearing process was stress free and we were cleared in about 30 minutes.

My husband's friend picked us from the airport and drove us to the furnished apartment we booked . I had sent money to a friend to help me pay a deposit for a two bedroom apartment close to downtown.

The next day we went to Harry's Hay building, registered and got our social insurance number, and also registered for health care and got the health care number. The card was mailed to us few days later.
I was able to seek medical care with the health care number and i delivered at foothills hospital few weeks
Later. I enjoyed the top-notch services I received.

The people in Calgary are warm, polite and nice. Gestures such as opening the door for someone, smiling , eye contact are very common. I love the City and I'm happy I made the decision to relocate at this point in time.

There are lots of programs the government put in place to help new immigrants especially women settle. The office administration/ HR program @CIWA for HR professionals, also CCIS offer various programs to assist new immigrants integrate in the Canadian society, YWCA, etc. I had to write the Canadian language benchmark exam to apply for the office administration program. The exam is easy though.

Getting the Alberta's driver's license was a challenge. But thank God i passed the knowledge test in one sitting . I took brush up driving lessons for two days and took the class 5 road test. I failed twice..lol. I finally passed on my third attempt. I was very ecstactic. I read the handbook like Cambridge text book..lol. Driving in Calgary is very different in comparison to driving in Nigeria. I had to unlearn my Nigeria driving skills and re- learn a saner way to drive. Lol.

I'm still searching for a good Christian day home for my 2years old. I hope to find soon though.

@Vcole i'm in calgary too o...

To buttress vcole's point, i also landed in calgary via Lufthansa-air Canada, did all landing ish at Toronto, entered calgary 3am the following day, the first thing that hit me was the cold OMG it was crazy and i witnessed snow in April. i also got an apartment through rentfaster, a friend helped with deposit and i signed the lease after landing. Moved in a week after, my apartment was furnished so i just moved all my stuffs in. been here 2 months nothing to complain about and my friend made settling in easy for e. Calgary's transit system is a life saver cos i can move without worries.but then i don't want to rely on the transit system by winter. Getting a job is kinda dicey without the canadian experience but people do get jobs so don't let thtat deter you. but i love the system shaa

vcole:
Hello everyone. I landed last month in Calgary. Its been a struggle trying to post because I've been quite busy but i'll try to share my experience thus far.
I have a toddler and I am currently pregnant so we decided not to take a direct flight from Nigeria. We flew medview to London and spent a couple of days there then flew air canada to Calgary. Medview........let's just say that would be the first and last time we would fly them. They were totally disorganized at the Lagos airport in terms of checking in passengers and there was so much uproar which ended up in the flight being delayed by over an hour. However, the aircraft we used was quite large and the leg room in economy was quite spacious and they made up for all the drama with the food which was quite savoury especially if you have a taste for Nigerian cuisine....they had fried and jollof rice (fried rice wasn't great at all, jollof was nice), pounded yam and egusi, amala and ewedu. The pilot more than made up for the delayed departure by landing us in Gatwick only 5 mins later than schedule. Down sides - no in flight entertainment.

Air Canada was good. Aircraft was lovely, in flight entertainment, cabin crew and meals were lovely as well. They are also kid friendly and leg room was good. Flight was smooth until landing which became quite turbulent due to the weather. Flight duration was 8.5 hrs.

At YYC, it took about 20-30 mins to get from the aircraft, go through immigration and pick up our baggage. Then we headed to the department that handles landing and had to wait for about 2hrs before it got to our turn. We landed on a Sunday so I don't know if that was the reason for the long wait. However, I realized that if one of us went to that department and took a number while the other picked up the bags, it would have accelerated things a bit as that was what some people did. Landing took about 5-10 mins.

We had booked a hotel nearby to stay for the first night and they sent us a pick up at the airport. We had found an apartment 2 months earlier on rentfaster.ca and a friend had helped view it and pay a deposit on our behalf and we were to sign the lease which was to start the day after our arrival. We had intended to rent a car the next day, go to meet with the landlord at our apartment, inspect and sign the lease then go get a few necessities since the apartment was unfurnished. However, come morning we realized that we couldn't rent a car because we required a credit card which we did not have. Let's just say things started getting a bit frustrating from that point on..........mostly because moving around is expensive by uber or cabs and although where we live has a good transit system, moving around with a toddler and a bump ism't exactly a glass of wine but oh well, so far so good. Lesson to be learnt - land with a functional credit card and plan to rent a car or buy one as soon as you can especially if you have a family. Then proceed to commence the process for obtaining a drivers license for the province in which you reside.

As regards documentation, we got everything done in the first week...health cards, social insurance numbers, etc. It isn't a complicated process at all.

My impression of Canada (through the eyes of Calgary) thus far........Its a diverse community and most people are pleasant. They make eye contact with you and converse easily. No one has a problem understanding you if you speak proper English with your Nigerian accent. Everyone we have met or spoken to on the phone always always ask you how to correctly pronounce your name and usually get it on the first or second try. Calgary seems lovely to me, the kind of place I would like to raise my kids in.

A few things I have learnt thus far......mobile data plans zap at the speed of light here. Getting a home internet is a huge help in that regard. The weather is actually good this time of year. Child care is expensive so for families with preschoolers, factor that in as a top priority.

Welcome to Calgary...

salford:

Good advise, but If one has never driven in US/Canada, then great care should be taken while driving.
It takes months to acclimatize to the driving conditions in a big city like Calgary. The merging lane rules, yield on solid green, driving through CT rail tracks, the right of way rules within subdivisions, one way rules e.t.c could be very confusing and lead to some serious accidents. You can also pick up a drivers handout from any registry for free. You would learn alot from it even before going for the knowledge and road test to obtain your operator's license

if you are going to stay within Calgary, freedom mobile/wind would be the cheapest option, but the network roams when you leave big cities.

Welcome to Calgary Vcole.

Good advice on driving. But freedom/wind is wack.. go for chatr or kodo. Fido is also good

One of the first things recommended in terms of employment is VOLUNTEERING. This can actually be the gateway to networking with the right set of people and even getting employed.
Another thing is, As much as possible hang out with positive minded people cos negative minded people will so discourage you that you will almost regret coming to Canada.
Manage your credit very well cos this might hunt you in the future if ruined. This is a credit society but wisdom is needed.

Calgary peeps you can holla

jesusbaby01:
@Vcole i'm in calgary too o...

To buttress vcole's point, i also landed in calgary via Lufthansa-air Canada, did all landing ish at Toronto, entered calgary 3am the following day, the first thing that hit me was the cold OMG it was crazy and i witnessed snow in April. i also got an apartment through rentfaster, a friend helped with deposit and i signed the lease after landing. Moved in a week after, my apartment was furnished so i just moved all my stuffs in. been here 2 months nothing to complain about and my friend made settling in easy for e. Calgary's transit system is a life saver cos i can move without worries.but then i don't want to rely on the transit system by winter. Getting a job is kinda dicey without the canadian experience but people do get jobs so don't let thtat deter you. but i love the system shaa

What is the cost of rent in Calgary?

WellEndowed:


What is the cost of rent in Calgary?

It depends on variety of factors? How many bedrooms, number of washroom, area of the city, condo, basement or townhouse, furnished or not furnished? Utilities included or not?
Like earlier said kijiji dot ca will give you clues. Also rentfaster dot ca is another good site

On my last trip to Estevan, Saskatchewan. Estevan is a vet small city..circa 10,000 people. It is well known as one of the last major city one encounters before entering the US via saskatchewan. I think the US border is about 50km drive away from Estevan and Minot in North Dakota is about 2hrs away.

Estevan is known for its Oil industry (Balkan Oil fields) and wheat/canola Farms. Alot of the residents are rich. Royalties from oil and large scale farming.

I think about 12 out of the 18 doctors in this small city are Nigerians.

I also witnessed the dirt race with a colleague last time i was here. Its basically a sport where rich kids from Saskatchewan and North Dakota put some very loud modefied engines v6, v8 or v12 engines in cars they built themselves. Hence they have different categories of dirt race. The under 10's are not left out too. Their parents build similar smaller cars fitted with lawn mower engines.

Some pics from the dirt race.

The winner of the highest category being interviewed. He is donating is cash reward of $50k to the local hospital.

I would upload more pics when i reach my destination. currently driving from Calgary to Regina.

salford:
I would upload more pics when i reach my destination. currently driving from Calgary to Regina.

Safe journey sir... Hope to meet you soon on your return.. Enjoy Regina

Wow nice contributions from you all. Thank you.
I am seriously considering choosing Calgary but people are discouraging us because of the oil sutuation, they claim there are no jobs and a lot of people are even moving to other provinces.
What do you guys think please?

Thanks y'all. -

salford:

Yes. it would get you back on track. I worked in a bank for years in the UK, but the amount being offered was very low compared to my previous earnings back in the UK so i returned to my first love i.e Engineering. I had to go back to school though as my engineering degree from Nigeria was hardly recognized.

I met a naija bros in University too back then. The bros had lots of SAP professional certificates from nigeria. He has a PMP too, but still returned to school to upgrade. Some very few are lucky though by getting jobs at their level of expertise without upgrading at a college or uni...

Thanks for the response. It's quite encouraging. I'm already looking at a pgd in IT/Information systems business analysis. How well does it thrive in Canada? In terms of job prospects

Set out from Calgary around 9am after topping up at the local gas station. ...the Journey from Calgary to Regina is about 720km and takes just over 7hrs to drive if one drives the speed limit.
Gas cost about $1 per litre...

yungreezy:


Thanks for the response. It's quite encouraging. I'm already looking at a pgd in IT/Information systems business analysis. How well does it thrive in Canada? In terms of job prospects

IT is very good. Aslong as you keep updating yourself.

Nievel:
Wow nice contributions from you all. Thank you.
I am seriously considering choosing Calgary but people are discouraging us because of the oil sutuation, they claim there are no jobs and a lot of people are even moving to other provinces.
What do you guys think please?

Calgary, the heartbeat of the West. The jobs are not as much as it used to be.

Ekpekus:

Safe journey sir... Hope to meet you soon on your return.. Enjoy Regina

Hopefully bro.