September 24, 2015 by admin

Tory and other big city mayors push for ‘specific commitments’ from leaders on housing

Toronto: Mayor John Tory and his counterparts from five other Canadian cities are calling on the federal party leaders to make “specific commitments” on how they would address the “affordable housing crisis” facing the country.
Tory met with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, London Mayor Matt Brown and Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic in Toronto on Thursday to discuss the need for more affordable housing funding, along with several other issues of mutual concern.
Following the meeting, the mayors toured the YWCA Elm Centre in downtown Toronto and held a press conference in which Tory and others chided the leaders of Canada’s federal parties for largely ignoring the issue on the campaign trail to date.
“I hope in the remaining weeks of the election campaign that all three of the leading parties and all of the parties will take a more in-depth look than they have at housing, which is an important part of what they all acknowledge to be the most important issue of this campaign – the economy,” Tory told reporters after the meeting. “It does affect our ability to create and maintain jobs in our cities and it will do a lot to improve the economic health of our cities, which are the economic engines of our country.”
In 2014, Toronto city council approved a $2.6-billion, 10-year plan to repair hundreds of aging Toronto Community Housing buildings but to date neither the federal or provincial governments have contributed a cent to the initiative, putting the TCHC in a position where it may have to eventually board up some units.
Speaking with reporters, Tory said that the federal government ultimately needs to provide a consistent pool of funding for affordable housing as it has done with public transit in the form of annual $1 billion commitment beginning in 2019.
In the interim, however, the mayor said there are other steps that can be taken, including a move to make surplus federal-owned land available for the development of new affordable housing projects and a commitment that allows federal infrastructure funding to be used to repair and maintain existing affordable housing units.
“If all three parties could clearly state that is something they are willing to commit to it would be a step forward,” Tory said.
Thousands believed to be homeless in Toronto
The exact extent of the affordable housing shortage in Toronto is hard to estimate, though the TCHC currently has about 91,000 people on the waiting list for placement in one of its 60,000 units.
Meanwhile, thousands are believed to be homeless in the city with one study by the City of Toronto pegging the number at 5,253 on one particular night in April, 2013.
The problem isn’t just restricted to Canada’s biggest city either with the federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy previously estimating that 150,000 Canadians from coast to coast relay on emergency shelters.
“I think federal leaders ignore housing at their peril right now,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters on Thursday. “Maybe five or 10 years ago the political pressure was not significant but what has changed is that across the country homelessness continues to grow and there is massive pressure on low to income families.”
Housing ‘basically forgotten’ on the campaign trail
The meeting between the mayors, who are all part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Big Cities Caucus, came with less than a month to go until Canadians go to the polls.
Discussing the upcoming election, Robertson said that housing “has basically been forgotten” on the campaign trial and called on the federal leaders to make “specific commitments” going forward.
Robertson then went on to proclaim that “Canadian cities are facing an affordable housing crisis” that is “holding families back” and hurting the economy.
“We are going to turn our attention to it over the weeks to come. Mayors across the country will be focused on making sure housing is on the radar and that we do secure those commitments,” Robertson said. “If we don’t get those commitments we will make it very clear to voters what the parties are and aren’t saying on housing. We are going to draw a lot of attention to it.”