THUNDER BAY – Candidates in Thunder Bay-Rainy River agree housing affordability is an important challenge. They disagree on what to do about it.
In recent interviews the riding’s five candidates – running under the Conservative, Liberal, Green, NDP and People’s Party banners – offered lower taxes, non-profit partnerships and reduced red tape as tools to tackle what has been called a crisis in housing affordability.
Statistics Canada said last November that nearly half of Canadians in a survey it conducted “reported being very concerned about housing affordability because of the rising costs of housing or rent.”
“The housing crisis is about young families who are trying to get into houses, find places to rent and really be able to live here in Northwestern Ontario,” said New Democratic Party candidate Yuk-Sem Won.
For affordable housing, she said, “we need to not just sell off land to private developers, we need to work with non-profits and the public developers to make sure that it’s not-for-profit housing and that the rent and the housing stays affordable for those first time buyers as well as the people who need to rent in order to then save up and get their own home.
“Having a house in Canada right now shouldn’t be the problem that it is. We need to be able to help people achieve that dream.”
Affordable housing “has been a priority of our government for the last couple of years,” said Liberal incumbent Marcus Powlowski, running for a third term.
“We have a lot of programs that we’ve already established,” he said, offering the first-time home buyers savings plan and the Housing Accelerator Fund as examples.
As well, he said, his party’s leader “recently announced that we’re going to drop the GST on under a million dollars if you’re a first-time home buyer
The Liberal leader “has also talked about innovation and more modular housing,” which is affordable and can be put up quickly, Powlowski said.
Tax reduction is one key element of making homes more affordable, said Conservative candidate Brendan Hyatt.
He pointed to his party’s campaign promise to axe the GST on new homes up to $1.3 million.
A Conservative news release says eliminating the GST on new homes will save buyers up to $65,000 on the purchase of an average home in Canada’s big cities.
“We’re also going to sell some of the Canadian excess properties and land to support building infrastructure and affordable housing so that people can get off the streets and get their dignity of home ownership back,” he said.
Cutting red tape is key to the People’s Party of Canada’s plan for affordable housing, said candidate Sabrina Ree.
“Me and my party plan to address the housing crisis in Northwestern Ontario by ripping down the bureaucratic red tape that exists with all these zoning bylaws. There’s a lot of red tape involved.”
Canada also needs to “put a full stop on immigration, because immigration is causing a housing crisis,” she said.
“We don’t have enough housing to meet the demand. Just last year, almost 500,000 immigrants came in from other countries – whether it be a study permit, whether it be refugee. We plan to put a full stop on that.
“The immigration crisis in this country was unheard of until the Liberals took over.”
Green Party candidate Eric Arner said we can learn from what’s being done elsewhere, including the “tiny houses” communities in some parts of the U.S. and Europe.
“One of the first things you need to do to help individuals, whether it’s with addiction or whatever the other issues might be in their lives, is give them a roof over their head first of all, and then we can work on those other problems,” he said.
Election day is April 28.
