Windsor Wins Big: How Ontario’s Building Faster Fund Rewards Results and Demands Accountability

In a province where housing affordability has become one of the defining challenges of our time, Windsor is proving that big results are possible when municipalities align ambition with action. This week, the Ontario government announced that the City of Windsor will receive $5.2 million through the second round of its Building Faster Fund, a program designed to reward municipalities that not only meet—but significantly exceed—their housing construction targets.

And Windsor didn’t just pass the test—it doubled it.

In 2024, Windsor broke ground on 2,306 new homes, an astonishing 213% of its provincially designated housing target. This achievement puts Windsor among Ontario’s housing all-stars and serves as a textbook example of why incentive-based governance can be a game-changer in addressing critical public needs.

Announced in August 2023, the Building Faster Fund is a three-year, $1.2 billion initiative designed to encourage municipalities to speed up the municipal approval process and get more homes built, faster. The formula is simple:

• Hit at least 80% of your target → get rewarded with additional funding.

• Exceed your target → reap even greater rewards.

This kind of performance-based funding model—where rewards are tied to measurable outcomes—is a hallmark of the Ford administration’s governance philosophy. Instead of simply doling out money with no strings attached, the program puts clear, concrete goals in place and backs them up with real consequences: achieve your targets and your community benefits; fall short, and you leave resources on the table.

Such an approach flips the old bureaucratic model on its head. It shifts the focus from process to results, creating an environment where municipal leaders are motivated to innovate, cut red tape, and think creatively about how to meet community needs.

Windsor’s success isn’t accidental. Mayor Drew Dilkens has made clear that the city’s strategy involves removing barriers to development, repurposing city-owned land for housing, and aggressively pursuing partnerships to keep projects moving forward. In his words:

“Windsor has been a leader in removing red tape, repurposing City-owned land to promote development and significantly exceeding our housing targets to support housing options in our community.”

This commitment to streamlining and problem-solving aligns perfectly with the incentive structure of the Building Faster Fund. By rewarding municipalities for tangible progress rather than paperwork, the province is encouraging precisely the kind of leadership Windsor is demonstrating.

While the headline numbers focus on housing starts, the benefits of the Building Faster Fund go deeper. The money awarded isn’t just for building homes—it’s also for community-enabling infrastructure: water systems, roads, transit, and other essential supports that make new developments livable and sustainable.

This means the $5.2 million Windsor just received will help fund the very things that make neighbourhoods work: connecting new homes to essential services, improving transportation access, and ensuring the city can absorb rapid growth without sacrificing quality of life.

One of the most notable elements of the Building Faster Fund is its clear embrace of accountability. In public administration, accountability often gets watered down to mean “reporting back” or “reviewing progress.” But here, accountability is concrete and measurable: meet the target, get the reward; miss it, you don’t.

This is the kind of results-based governance that should be expanded far beyond the housing sector. Imagine applying a similar model to other critical public issues:

• Healthcare: Hospitals could receive performance bonuses for reducing wait times and meeting treatment benchmarks.

• Education: School boards could be rewarded for improving literacy rates, graduation rates, or employment outcomes for students.

• Infrastructure: Municipalities could earn funding boosts for completing major projects on time and under budget.

In each case, the principle is the same: set clear targets, measure results, and tie funding to actual performance. This creates an environment where public dollars are tied to public benefit, not just political promises.

The Ford government has shown a willingness to tie public funding to tangible outcomes, and the Building Faster Fund is perhaps its clearest example to date. By blending incentives for high performers with penalties for underperformance, the program addresses one of the perennial problems in government spending: the tendency for money to flow regardless of whether objectives are met.

This kind of governance is not without its critics—some worry that performance-based funding can disadvantage municipalities with fewer resources. But Windsor’s example shows that when the incentives are clear, and when leadership is proactive, extraordinary results are possible.

Windsor’s success is part of a broader trend. From January to June 2025, Ontario recorded 9,125 rental starts, a 26.5% increase over the same period in 2024. It’s the second-highest level on record for this time of year, suggesting that the combination of policy incentives and funding support is beginning to move the needle on housing supply.

The province has even extended the deadline for municipalities to spend Building Faster Fund dollars to 2028, giving communities more flexibility to put their awards to best use.

Windsor’s performance in 2024 proves that with the right mix of political will, local leadership, and incentive-based policy, Ontario can make serious headway in tackling its housing crisis. But the lesson here extends beyond bricks and mortar.

By tying rewards to measurable success, the Ford administration is fostering a culture of accountability that gets results. This isn’t just good for housing—it’s a governance model worth expanding into every corner of public service.