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By Josh Hall

mayor hopes to meet housing minister this month

Alberta demands Ottawa back off on housing funding stripped from Red Deer

Apr 2, 2026 | 5:22 PM

Ottawa needs to change its tune on the $12 million it stripped from the City of Red Deer in 2025.

So says Alberta’s Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services Jason Nixon, who this week shared a new statement on the matter, saying the federal government recently gave the provincial government an ultimatum.

To rewind, the $12 million was a grant the city had been approved for under the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). It carried a stipulation that city council approve ‘four-as-of-right’ zoning city-wide.

After much public feedback was received opposed to that stipulation, council opted to tell Ottawa it wouldn’t do it; however, it still wanted to keep the money. Last year, when they made that decision, they had already received $3 million of the total grant, and those monies still sit with the city, burning a townhouse-sized hole in its pocket.

It’s especially hot because Mayor Cindy Jefferies says multiple sites are shovel-ready.

mayor hopes to meet housing minister this month

Alberta demands Ottawa back off on housing funding stripped from Red Deer

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Last seen Jan. 15

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Air Spray training around Red Deer Regional Airport

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THE ULTIMATUM

A ministry spokesperson says the latest ‘take it or leave it’ came within the last week, with Ottawa telling Alberta it could have about the equivalent of Red Deer’s $12 million grant, but as one-time Housing Accelerator top-ups for the cities of Edmonton and Airdrie, if it signed a deal by March 31.

The province did sign that deal, but they aren’t backing down from defending Red Deer’s right to keep what it feels the hub of central Alberta rightly deserves.

“Our province has deep concerns that these funding agreements are being made at the expense of other municipalities and rural communities,” Nixon and fellow ministers [Dan Williams and Nate Horner] write in a March 31 letter to Gregor Robertson, federal minister of housing and infrastructure.

“Although Alberta has approved these one-time increases to the agreement, we will not sign off on further agreements until the City of Red Deer and other Alberta municipalities are treated fairly and provided the same flexibility that has been afforded other communities in the federal housing agreements.”

Nixon says in a media release that Alberta’s relationship with Ottawa has been improving, with housing often an area where there is strong collaboration. This is why he says a seeming double standard makes the situation stranger.

THE (apparent) CONTRADICTION

Nixon points to Toronto which in 2023 was approved for around $470 million over three years from the same grant. Toronto also refused to adhere to a similar sixplex zoning requirement, but has only been docked $10 million from its total grant.

Just today, the Government of Canada announced Charlottetown, P.E.I. has been found to be non-compliant with its HAF agreement, but it’s only going to suffer a 50 per cent cut of $1.26 million to its third instalment.

Similar can be said for Markham, Ontario, also announced Thursday as non-compliant; its third instalment is being cut in half, at a cost of $7.36 million.

Miramichi, New Brunswick was also part of the latest announcement, and its full agreement is being terminated, a la Red Deer.

The federal government has not said what differentiates cases like Red Deer’s from others, where communities get to keep at least some of their money despite technically breaking the rules. If they provide a response, it will be added here.

“Situations like this are why Alberta’s government passed the Provincial Priorities Act. The actions of the federal government continue to prove why this was necessary,” adds Nixon, referring to the legislation that stipulates the Alberta government must approve federal allocations to communities.

“We will not allow Alberta, and particularly rural Alberta and mid-sized communities, to be left behind.”

THE MAYOR

Cindy Jefferies shared with rdnewsNOW she has a tentative meeting with Minister Robertson the week after next in Ottawa.

Jefferies says she’s not going through this process looking for a fight, and wants to work together for a solution.

“We’ve got several projects in the community that are ready to go. We have a permanent supportive housing proposal through Red Deer Housing Authority and Bridges, and there are a few others,” she says.

“Everything we laid out in our application gets things rolling, but we want to incentivize between $40 and $50 million of housing development in our community; that $12 million would go a long way to spurring that development and making it happen quickly.”

Jefferies also says the city has been building more dense than it ever has, which she’d think would help satisfy the blanket zoning the feds desire. Unfortunately, it hasn’t.

“You see more apartments buildings going up; what used to be a narrow lot is now a regular-sized lot; and we recognize the need to build in different ways to offer housing options for all rather than just strictly single-family housing,” the mayor adds.

In January, city council passed a resolution 7-2 to not return the roughly $3 million it’s already received, and of which it spent about $40,000 on public consultations.

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READ MORE

• As Alberta boasts record housing starts, minister lends Red Deer support with critical CMHC issue
• Red Deer city council stands their ground on HAF2 four units as-of-right condition
• City tries to dispel concerns around Red Deer’s $12 million Housing Accelerator Fund grant