London politicians back MPP's Ontario home-building push

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London is supporting an opposition MPP’s call to get Ontario to build affordable homes at cost on public land and create a new agency to oversee the push.

London NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan, in a letter to city council’s committee of the whole, its strategic priorities and policy committee, said he will introduce proposed legislation this month calling on the provincial government to build 250,000 affordable homes over 10 years.

The proposal, if enacted by the Progressive Conservative government, would result in housing built at cost on government-owned land, greatly reducing the cost to owners, much as Canada did for veterans returning from the Second World War, the London North Centre MPP wrote.

“Both private developers and non-profit providers have noted that without access to free land, creating new rental housing is increasingly difficult due to high development costs, and creating affordable rental housing is nearly impossible,” Kernaghan said.

The private sector isn’t building the housing that’s needed, added Kernaghan, who asked for a letter of support from the city.

“Government was once an integral part of building the vital housing we need,” he said.

That call sparked a debate at city hall Tuesday on the role government plays in housing, with some politicians saying they wouldn’t  support the “bureaucracy” of a new housing agency.

Ward 3 Coun. Peter Cuddy initially called for the letter to be received and no further action taken.

But Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow, in a series of amendments he proposed, pushed the committee members, made up of all councillors, to support the call for more housing and the creation of a Homes Ontario agency and to forward the letter to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, an umbrella group for municipalities, for consideration.

“I am having a difficult time understanding what the downside of this is,” Trosow said after a lengthy debate. “We need to be doing this. We need effective government action.”

Mayor Josh Morgan agreed, adding, “I have no issue supporting the motions. What he (Kernaghan) has outlined here is easy to get behind.”

While the call for more housing was supported by all politicians, Cuddy – along with Ward 10 Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen, Ward 5’s Jerry Pribil, Ward 4’s Susan Stevenson and Ward 14’s Steve Hillier – opposed amendments calling for the creation of Homes Ontario.

“I will not support this amendment. All parties are looking to do housing. I trust the government will engage if they think it is worthwhile,” said Stevenson.

“I trust the provincial government will do what they need to do,” she said.

After the Second World War, a federal Crown corporation, Wartime Housing Limited, built and managed thousands of homes for returning veterans. Canada built 1.5 million homes between 1943 and 1960 on government land for “moderate income households.” Kernaghan’s letter said.

Between 1973 and 1994, Canada built or acquired about 16,000 non-profit or co-operative housing units each year.  Since then, however, federal and provincial housing policies have moved away from that, relying instead on the private market to deliver housing.

Ontario needs to build 1.5 million homes to meet existing needs.

At Queen’s Park, Doug Ford’s PC government is pushing municipalities to help hit that target, easing some of the fees developers are charged for growth-related costs and offering so-called “strong mayor” powers to dozens of municipalities that sign on to hit targets assigned by the province for new housing units built by 2031.