The housing crisis is on the mind of many Canadians right now. We asked the Simcoe-Grey federal election candidates what they thought about the issue, and what they would do to fix it if elected.
Simcoe-Grey NDP candidate Jasleen Bains did not respond to interview requests, and the federal NDP media relations officer declined an interview request on her behalf.
Here’s what the other candidates said.
Allan Kuhn, Green Party
“If the government uses government money to build housing, that housing has to be deeply affordable,” said Kuhn. “That means it has to cost 30 per cent of an average person’s wage. That’s not the way it is right now.”
“Affordable housing, right now, is very expensive,” he said.
Kuhn says one of the issues that contributes to the rising costs is housing is treated more like a financial investment, rather than a human need.
“We’re treating the housing market like the stock market. In reality, the housing market is a human right.” he said. “There are tax loopholes to make corporations lots of money off of us in housing.”
He said he believes Crown land and public land should be donated for affordable housing builds.
“Canada is the second biggest country on the planet. We’ve got so much land that we could use for affordable housing,” said Kuhn. “We need a national policy on this. It’s not going to go away. It can’t be an election promise. It has to be a reality.”
Giorgio Mammoliti, People’s Party
When asked about housing, Mammoliti is frank.
“There’s very little in the housing framework with our party. The reason is, I’ve been asked to try to write it over the next little while,” he said, referencing the 12 years he spent working for Ontario Housing Corporation. “They do see me as a housing advocate.”
Mammoliti said he will be proposing a no-segregation policy that would see affordable, attainable and social housing integrated into neighbourhoods, instead of having those housing types confined to certain areas of town.
“We’re not going to build any more housing or contribute federal money to any more housing that will segregate the poor,” he said. “It only creates more difficulty for the people living in those units.”
Mammoliti also believes that federal land should be contributed to affordable housing efforts nation-wide, and corporations who build high apartment towers should be required to donate affordable units back to municipalities.
“I also don’t believe that the federal government should be preaching to municipalities on how to build their affordable housing units. I think that should be strictly them, but I think the federal government should fund them,” he said.
Bren Munro, Liberal Party
Munro talks about the Liberal’s ambitious housing plan, which will see the pace of construction doubled to bring in 500,000 more homes per year.
“Everything’s going to come together. Not 13 economies – one economy,” said Munro, noting the Liberals are also in support of removing inter-provincial trade barriers. She said while only 10 per cent of land in Canada is privately owned, 90 per cent is Crown land or land in trust.
“We have lots of land to build on,” she said.
Munro talks about the party’s plan to go back to building wartime houses through pre-fabricated home builders with $25 billion in financing pledged for the endeavour.
“That’s what they built at the end of the Second World War for all the soldiers coming home, and that’s what we’re going to build again,” she said.
Munro references recently bringing the federal housing minister Nate Erskine-Smith to Collingwood to meet with Collingwood’s mayor and housing advocates.
“I’m able to connect A with B and bring people in as I can,” she said.
Munro lists off other Liberal promises through their platform, including cutting development charges in half for multi-residential housing and a major tax incentive for developers who build rental housing.
Terry Dowdall, Conservative Party
Dowdall said one of the major hold-ups to getting affordable housing built is getting the infrastructure built to make sure new homes can be hooked up to the municipal grid. He notes there’s been significant investment in infrastructure in Simcoe-Grey through the provincial government over the past few years.
“It’s been delayed for a long period of time,” he said. “It’s too bad these (investments) weren’t earlier because…developers have slowed down.”
To counter that, Dowdall said Simcoe-Grey needs to be looking at new types of housing, noting he built a tiny home on his New Lowell property for his mother-in-law, who has Parkinson’s.
“Secondary suites are good in certain neighbourhoods as well,” he said. “I think people have to realize there’s different types and some people are against new singular homes. Any home that’s built is a new home.”
Dowdall said the housing crisis is putting pressure on other areas of the economy as well, and he believes tiny homes may be the answer. He said that while the federal government should be doing their part, he says developers, municipalities and the provincial government all need to be on-board as well with the same goals.
“Everybody needs to be working on it, but I think what’s been lost is the private side for years. I think that’s part of the problem. The government subsidizes another government to build something, but they won’t subsidize somebody else that’s willing to do a project that can put more people into a house,” he said.
“Let’s get the houses built,” he said.