Applications opened Thursday for a $1-billion federal program to help municipalities and Indigenous communities build critical infrastructure.

Toronto Star: OTTAWA – Applications opened Thursday for a $1-billion federal program to help municipalities and Indigenous communities build critical infrastructure.

The government set aside $1 billion through the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund in direct funding to communities to build or improve infrastructure to support drinking water, wastewater, stormwater and solid waste.

Applications are available online for municipalities and Indigenous communities. Those applicants will need to demonstrate how their proposals will support the building of more homes.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser said he expects to distribute all of the funding directly to communities by the end of the year.

“For clarity, this is another program that (Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre has vowed to cut completely from the handful of programs we’ve put on the table to make it easier and more cost-effective to get homes built,” Fraser said.

Poilievre has said he would cut the Liberals’ housing policies, and instead eliminate the federal sales tax for new homes sold for under $1 million. He called on provinces to do the same with provincial sales taxes.

Fraser also announced Thursday the Regional Homebuilding Innovation Fund is accepting applications, which will allocate $50 million over two years to support housing construction in southern Ontario.

By Alessia Passafiume The Canadian Press