The wheels have started to turn on efforts to address the housing affordability crisis impacting Guelph and the rest of the province, believes Mayor Cam Guthrie.
He praised Wednesday’s virtual Provincial Housing Summit between Ontario Big City Mayors and regional leaders, Premier Doug Ford and Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, as an “excellent” start to an ongoing process intended to address skyrocketing home sale and rental prices.
“This is an ongoing conversation,” he said after the summit which saw municipal leaders share a variety of ideas with the government, including overhauling the time it takes for development applications to make their way through the appeals process. “Even though it’s an ongoing conversation, we need to collectively move to action as quickly as possible.
“That excites me because the last thing we need is more of governments just talking.”
At the onset of the summit, Ford announced a $45 million fund intended to help Ontario’s largest municipalities to streamline development approvals and cut red tape so residential and industrial projects can get underway more quickly. The government also made an $8 million pledge to the audit and accountability fund designed to help municipalities find efficiencies within their organization.
“Those are big action steps right out of the gate,” said Guthrie, adding it gives him a feeling of optimism on the issue. “The Premier was right when he said all of us need to look in our own backyards at what we can fix when it comes to either processes or policies or data collection so that changes can be implemented together.
“The ultimate winner of those changes will be the end consumer.”
Guthrie anticipates additional provincial actions to be announced in the coming weeks.
Just finished the #HousingSummit with my fellow @ONBigCityMayors alongside Premier @fordnation & @SteveClarkPC. It was extremely well done. They were authentic & respectful wanting to work with all governments to help make housing come faster for all. This is how it’s done! 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/uV8GTrIuDX
— Mayor Cam Guthrie (@CamGuthrie) January 19, 2022
The latest report from the Canadian Real Estate Association shows the average price of homes sold in Guelph last month was a record $1,063,530, putting Guelph into the same category as cities such as Toronto and Vancouver
In November, the area flirted with the seven-figure mark for home sale prices, coming in less than $5,000 shy of the million-dollar mark.
Guelph’s rental market is also escalating, with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data showing average rents increasing more than eight per cent from 2019 to 2020.
FACT: Ontario is growing and we need to build more housing.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) January 19, 2022
FACT: Prices are still increasing & home ownership is out of reach for too many Ontarians.
FACT: Fixing our housing crisis will require all levels of government working together to address the challenge as #TeamOntario. pic.twitter.com/isJCpDVA7q
During the virtual summit, Guelph MPP and Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner hosted an online event of his own to discuss the issue and push for a variety of actions.
“Ontario had a housing crisis well before the pandemic … and now issues like housing and affordability have reached a breaking point, getting much worse,” he said. “We must act now. Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home.”
Schreiner renewed calls for the provincial government to eliminate urban sprawl, citing his party’s pledge to create 100,000 new permanently affordable rental spaces and renew 260,000 affordable community housing spaces, as well as establish 60,000 supportive housing units with wraparound supports to address homelessness.
“Throughout the province, unhoused Ontarians are forced to sleep outside in minus-30 degree weather and it’s just not right, it’s inhumane,” he said. “Any plan to tackle the housing crisis needs to include a robust plan to end chronic and temporary homelessness.”
The housing crisis requires a collaborative effort among elected officials and others, Schreiner added, lamenting the fact that none of the opposition party leaders were invited to participate in the provincial summit.
“Doug Ford oftentimes refuses to listen to good ideas from other parties and from many grassroots activists,” he said. “People are facing a housing crisis – they don’t care about partisan political stripes, people just want solutions.
“They need us all to cooperate, collaborate and work together.”
