Premier Doug Ford Unveils Ontario 'Data Centre Playbook' and $1 Billion Housing Fund at AMO Summit

OTTAWA, ON — Speaking before thousands of municipal leaders at the 2026 Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa on Monday, Premier Doug Ford laid out the province's comprehensive 'Data Centre Playbook' alongside major capital commitments for municipal housing-enabling infrastructure.

Data Sovereignty and Commercial Electricity Rates

Premier Ford mounted a forceful defense of Ontario's strategy to expand domestic computing infrastructure, framing the initiative around Canadian data sovereignty. Ford warned municipal leaders that failing to develop secure domestic data centres leaves critical public and commercial records hosted on foreign infrastructure subject to extraterritorial jurisdiction and administrative whims in Washington.

Under the newly codified playbook, Ontario will provide zero provincial subsidies or tax abatements to prospective data centre operators. Instead, the framework creates a dedicated, higher industrial electricity rate classification, mandating that hyperscalers and artificial intelligence compute providers fully finance their own high-voltage substation connections, transmission feeder lines, and on-site redundancy.

To safeguard municipal water systems, prospective data centres must utilize closed-loop water cooling architectures that avoid depleting municipal potable supplies or straining regional water purification plants.

$1 Billion Housing-Enabling Infrastructure Stream

Beyond digital infrastructure, Premier Ford confirmed the launch of a $1 billion joint federal-provincial infrastructure investment stream under the 'Canada-Ontario Partnership to Build.' The funding is targeted directly at municipalities that eliminate or freeze development charges, subsidizing arterial roads, bridge upgrades, storm sewers, and water main extensions necessary to unlock thousands of new shovel-ready housing units.

Ford additionally confirmed that the second application intake for the $500 million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund (CSRIF) opened on Monday, making $100 million in provincial matching grants available for community arena, pool, and recreation complex modernizations.

Municipal Timelines and Regulatory Filings

Applications for the $1 billion housing-enabling infrastructure stream will officially open to Ontario municipal governments on October 29, 2026, while the current CSRIF funding window closes December 22, 2026. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) and Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) will initiate formal rate hearing proceedings on the new industrial data centre rate tariff in October.