The April 16 budget will include $5 billion for provinces, $1 billion for municipal governments and a $400-million increase for the Housing Accelerator Fund, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced. Under political pressure to cut the cost of housing, the Liberals also plan to tie future funding for transit to upzoning for higher density housing near transit lines, colleges and universities. (The Logic)

Talking point: To get shares of the infrastructure money, provinces will need to adopt versions of the policies Housing Minister Sean Fraser has been demanding of cities one by one if they want Housing Accelerator Fund payments, including freezes on development charges and requiring cities to approve fourplexes and other forms of medium-density construction. Since Ontario Premier Doug Ford publicly rejected that last idea just a couple of weeks ago, the federal move sets up a Liberal-Tory battle in the most populous province over who’s more serious about housing.