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Mayoral candidates talk about need for more housing at real estate event

Guelph and District Association of Realtors hosts breakfast event with Cam Guthrie and Aggie Mlynarz
20180921 aggie mlynzarz Cam Guthrie ts 2
Guelph Mayoral candidates Aggie Mlynarz and Cam Guthrie speak at a Guelph and District Association of Realtors candidates event Friday at the Italian Canadian Club. Tony Saxon/GuelphToday

Home ownership was the hot topic for the two mayoral candidates in the upcoming municipal election Friday morning.

Cam Guthrie and Aggie Mlynarz spoke at an election event hosted by the Guelph and District Association of Realtors at the Italian Canadian Club.

Host Brett Nodwell set the stage by pointing out how difficult it is for today’s younger generation to achieve that home ownership.

“Millennials today want to own homes. But that’s never been tougher,” Nodwell said.

Guthrie, followed by Mlynarz, addressed the housing issue and discussed some general points from their platforms.

They then took a handful of questions from the audience.

Roughly 60 people attended the event, including around 20 people running in the upcoming election.

Guthrie said “everyone agrees that Guelph is doing really, really well” but affordability remains an issue.

“We might be the greatest city in the world, but it just won’t matter” if people can’t afford to live here, Guthrie said.

“Some believe we have a choice to be made I believe that Guelph can be a great city and be affordable as well,” he said.

He talked about the ongoing city process that will see Guelph expand south into the Clair/Maltby area.

“We need to get it ready. It’s there and it needs to be developed so that we have that supply that’s needed in our community,” he said, explaining the ongoing process that will see that happen.

“Get more supply. It’s straight up economics. Supply and demand,” Guthrie said, touching on the provincial lands along Victoria Road and Downtown Guelph as other areas for potential residential growth of various types.

He said it’s also important to encourage people to live on the major corridors of the city to help reduce the reliance on cars and improve the use of transit.

Guthrie took four questions, three of them on parking and one on water.

Mlynarz told the room that because she ran provincially for the NDP in the summer “does not mean I am anti-business or anti-development or anti-realtors. In fact I am quite the opposite in this sense,” Mlynarz opened with.

The self-admitted millennial also said she supports the development of the Clair/Maltby area, but with “conscientious planning” that keeps the future in mind.

Green space, a sense of community, walkability are some of the things she “wants to see put into Clair/Maltby.

Development has to also be conscious and respect the effect development will have on Guelph’s groundwater.

“That doesn’t mean don’t develop it, and I want to be very firm about that. What it does mean is that we might need to start thinking outside the box and that’s where my generation takes hold” in wanting growth in green technology and net zero homes.

“I hope that we can begin to build a future that will resonate and be something  that in 50 years the generation that is just growing up now can be proud of,” Mlynarz said.

That, she said, means being bold and being brave and thinking of ways we haven’t done in the past.

A pair of mayoral debates are planned for the near future: on Sept. 26 there is a candidate meet and greet and mayoral debate at the Italian Canadian Club with the debate starting at 8 p.m. On Oct. 1 the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is hosting a mayor’s debate at Guelph City Hall beginning at 6 p.m.


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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