Affordable housing seems to come up in election campaigns for every level of government from municipal to provincial to federal.
This current federal campaign is no exception with most major parties including affordable housing plans in their platforms.
In Simcoe-Grey, each of the six candidates has ideas for making housing more affordable.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Company, housing is considered to be affordable when a household spends less than 30 per cent of its pre-tax income on adequate shelter.
The average price of a home in Collingwood is around $540,000. According to the Government of Canada’s mortgage calculator website, a home at that price, with a 10 per cent downpayment would cost approximately $3,000 a month in mortgage payments. For that mortgage payment to be considered affordable, the family or individual living in that $540,000 home would have to bring in $108,000 annually before taxes.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests the average market rate for a one-bedroom apartment for rent in Collingwood is $898 plus utilities. For a two-bedroom apartment, the price average market rate is $1,063 plus utilities.
Simcoe County recently built county-owned apartments to be rented at below market value. The two buildings, located at 485 and 475 Second Street are now open with 55 units for families and 92 units for seniors.
On move-in day for the family building, there was a waiting list of more than 100 families hoping for an apartment in the affordable housing development.
CollingwoodToday asked Simcoe-Grey’s federal candidates what they would do to make housing more financially attainable for residents of Simcoe-Grey. Here are their responses:
Sherri Jackson, Green Party of Canada
There is another question here, which is, how do we raise the standard of living for more people, so they can afford to live here?
We propose a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) for every Canadian, to ensure they are able to live healthy, prosperous lives. GLI would be based on the cost of living in each community - so the GLI in Collingwood would be different than the one in St. John.
We also propose a $15/hr federal minimum wage. Here we have a problem with a gig economy – temporary, seasonal, part-time jobs that don't pay very well. With a transition to a green economy, it's estimated that with retrofits alone, four million well-paying, skilled jobs will be created across the country. Many more than we currently have the capacity for. So, there will be lots of opportunities for better jobs for people.
And, we intend to provide free post-secondary education and training for trades as well. That will all be paid for by (1) placing a five per cent surtax on commercial bank profits (which totalled over $200 billion last year), (2) eliminating tax loopholes that allow the 1 per cent to hide their money offshore (amounting to $240 billion untaxed dollars), (3) raising the corporate tax rate on big business from 15 per cent to 21 per cent, and (4) taxing e-commerce businesses like Amazon, Google and Netflix, who currently pay zero tax in Canada but take a big chunk of our dollars.
Jackson also spoke about her party’s plan to appoint a National Minister of Housing to work with provinces, increase the national co-housing development fund by $750 million, and an additional $750 million for the Canada Housing Benefit for rent assistance for 125,000 rental households in her answer to a question about homelessness. You can read that story here.
Lorne Kenney, Liberal Party of Canada
There is, of course, the option of rent control but that is strictly within the purview of the provincial government and, with the Ford government at Queen’s Park, I wouldn’t hold my breath on any quick action there.
One avenue that needs further exploration is a cooperative approach involving major employers in the service sector who are facing near intractable problems in finding staff for their operations. Part of their limitations is their inability to provide housing for incoming staff members.
Again, the answers lie in the effective use of the funding that has been committed under the National Housing Strategy and working effectively with the County governments (Grey and Simcoe) and the various municipalities to add to the housing stock.
One other part of the answer, of course, is in enabling young families to afford their first home. A federal Liberal government will move forward with the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, which gives people 10% off the purchase price of their first home.
There are several new subdivisions springing up in Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Clearview and Town of the Blue Mountains to house new arrivals, many of whom are finding employment locally.
The qualifying value needs to be increased for places like South Georgian Bay on the same basis as the major metropolitan markets such as Vancouver and Toronto.
For all practical purposes, the South Georgian Bay market is part of the GTA market and should be treated in the same way.
As the Member of Parliament for Simcoe-Grey, I will pursue an expansion of the coverage of the special provisions that apply to those markets.
Kenney also further referenced the Liberal government’s National Housing Strategy with medium and long term plans to help Canadians find affordable housing, which he said will require cooperation and collaboration between all orders of government, developers and others to get new units built that are affordable for people on low incomes. You can read that story here.
Richard Sommer, People’s Party of Canada
The PPC will mobilize the national infrastructure bank to help small and medium-sized building companies to hold loans to build more houses.
We are committed to examining the root causes (such as crime and unbridled foreign investment) of our housing price increases, and to finding ways to improve affordable supply.
Tony D’Angelo, Veteran’s Coalition Party of Canada
The issue with the Collingwood area is that the bulk of housing is condominium development and these are second homes for many people. These homes are rented out into the market for recreational use at a premium.
There needs to be more ‘low-cost’ housing built within the region, to support the average workers.
Incentivizing the local builders to provide a certain percentage of low-cost homes in their developments or community is one solution to improving the situation.
Mortgage reform may also be a solution if used cautiously.
Terry Dowdall, Conservative Party of Canada
Each town in Simcoe-Grey is unique but has one thing in common: people are looking for more affordable housing – more options to suit their needs and budget.
We have many young people and families in Simcoe-Grey and the cost of buying a home is becoming out of reach for many. Providing more housing will help.
The federal government needs to do its part to kick-start the housing construction industry since more homes on the market will lower prices. I also believe that more rental housing and apartments are needed.
Again, I believe in partnering to provide solutions, and the housing industry is no different. Public-private partnerships help us to achieve more.
We need more projects like the partnered-project of 147 units in Collingwood on High and Second Streets which was started last year.
We need to continue to fund projects such as this where different partners are coming to the table to ensure that different interests are advanced together.
A Conservative government will help residents of Simcoe-Grey get ahead because our tax cuts in all different areas will also help people to save for a down-payment, and we will revisit the mortgage stress test to make it easier for first time home buyers to secure a mortgage.
Ilona Matthews, New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP)
We will provide immediate relief to renters who need help now with a rental benefit of up to $5,000.
For first-time home buyers, we will re-introduce 30-year mortgages and double the tax credit to $1,500.
We will build 500,000 affordable homes across the country.
We will also apply a foreign buyer's tax to crack down on speculation that drives up prices.
