Affordability has become one of the prime issues across Ontario.
The price of housing has gone through the roof. Rent prices are up all dramatically all over the province. Housing stock is limited as it continues to be difficult and extremely expensive to build housing in Ontario.
In Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, rarely does a local council meeting go by without the issue of affordable/attainable housing being mentioned at some point.
Many ideas, tools and changes have been introduced in recent years to try and improve the housing situation in Ontario - with limited success.
Green Party candidate Joel Loughead said affordable/attainable housing is “absolutely top of mind” when he speaks to other municipal representatives.
“Everybody is pulling out their hair trying to solve this affordable housing issue and it’s not rocket science. What we need to do is take the exact opposite approach of the Ford government, unsurprisingly,” he said.
Loughead said Ontario can’t continue paving over farmland to build large, single-family homes and notes that approach “does not actually give people a place to live affordably.”
“We need to build intensely in built-up urban areas. You build the types of homes people really want,” he said. “When we talk about building up, we talk about building up reasonably – two, four, six stories – in neighbourhoods that are already built up. You can build these types of communities.”
Liberal candidate Selwyn Hicks said there are community-based solutions for affordable and attainable housing if the government would provide the funding and unshackle groups willing to work to solve the crisis.
Hicks said after his departure from municipal politics, he joined the Owen Sound Nonprofit Housing Corporation, which completed a significant housing project in Owen Sound.
“It’s not like there aren’t solutions. Groups like that are ready to go. Too many people are spending 70 - 80 per cent of their monthly income on housing, if they can find a place,” said Hicks. “There are a lot of community groups out there that are ready to do it, if they have the funding. We just need to get the machinery cranked up on this.”
Progressive Conservative candidate Paul Vickers said there are dual keys to solving the housing crisis: getting new homes built faster and increasing density in urban areas where water and sewage infrastructure already exists.
“One of the biggest things we can do as a province is trying to reduce red tape,” said Vickers, who noted that he has heard plenty of stories about developers waiting long periods of time to get approvals for their projects. “Let’s get them done and get them built. The only way we’re going to solve this problem is to build more houses.”
Vickers said the mindset has to change from “sprawling out onto agricultural land” to increasing density in urban areas. He said the cost to extend services to lower-density projects on vacant land is enormous when compared to urban areas where the services exist.
“I think the key is to get more density inside the urban boundaries,” said Vickers, who praised the current government for changing planning policies to allow three dwellings as of right on a residential lot. “That’s a big improvement. It’s not for everybody, but for the people who can do it and want to do it, then let them go and let them do it. If you can create one more house on a lot and you can make it work, then let’s do it that way. It’s better than taking up farmland to build low-density housing projects.”
NDP candidate James Harris said his party will take every step it can to increase the stock of affordable and attainable housing.
“We are absolutely committed to making sure there is affordable and accessible - either public or cooperative - housing,” said Harris. “We’re going to work with all levels of government to make sure that is available for people so that when you’re looking for a place to live, you’re not going to have to look long.”
Harris also said the NDP will improve overall affordability by helping Ontarians with a grocery rebate.
“We’re committed to making sure that you’re able to put food on the table,” he said.
Harris called for the end of the privatization of healthcare services, which he said Ontarians can’t afford.
“You don’t want to be paying for healthcare as well,” said Harris. “One of the things that certainly isn’t going to make life more affordable is if you’re paying out-of-pocket for services you’re already paid for when it comes to healthcare.”