Housing is key, Charlottetown mayoral candidates agree
CBC
Housing dominated a Charlottetown mayoral candidates' roundtable on Island Morning Tuesday.
The Charlottetown mayor's race is part of municipal elections being held across P.E.I. on Nov. 7.
Candidates Philip Brown, Daniel Mullen and Cecil Villard addressed the issues for more than a half-hour on the program, and housing was top of mind for all of them.
"Key to everything is the housing," said Mullen.
Mullen favours the city starting to build housing itself, bypassing the provincial and federal programs that encourage developers to build affordable housing.
"We need to introduce more housing stock in that doesn't have the profit motive in it. We can build units," he said.
"We can get housing built where rents are going to be $1,000 a month or less, and that will allow us to get into things such as income-based housing."
Brown said he was running on his record of the last four years as mayor, and part of that was seeing 420 affordable housing units, as defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, built in the city.
The city needs to keep building on that relationship with the federal and provincial governments to get more housing built, said Brown.
"Creating more affordable housing requires that both levels of government step up and invest money or funds into social, affordable and subsidized housing," he said.
Current programs to encourage the building of affordable units need to be reconsidered, said Villard.
The pace of growth on P.E.I. means contractors have their choice of projects, and contractors are frequently choosing to do other things rather than build affordable housing.
"I don't think we're going to solve the housing problem until such time as we get the provincial government, we get CMHC, we get the contractors that build these houses, we need to get into a room and develop a housing strategy that actually works," he said.
"We need to recognize that we need all the players on deck if we're going to deal with this housing problem."
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.
The driver wanted in connection with a fatal hit and run on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified, police say.
There are mixed feelings about the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, among people who live in nearby communities.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Provincial police in Lambton County have charged a 23-year-old man with second degree murder following a death investigation that began this past Saturday.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is forming a working group to tackle what it calls systemic issues in the justice system, but answers or solutions could still be months away.
A woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in a 2024 fatal hit and run in Truro, N.S., where the victim was dragged down the street, a case that went unsolved for more than six months.
A stream of people showing up to a brightly lit front porch, each holding up a bottle of wine, spirits, or beer.
Sona Lakhoyan Olivier has been excluded from Quebec’s Liberal caucus for the duration of an investigation led by the National Assembly’s ethics commissioner, the party announced Thursday.
The head of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association hopes a city plan to crack down on vacant properties leads to a transformation in his community.
Saskatchewan's justice minister is rejecting the latest legislative proposal from the NDP Opposition, one that the NDP says is a necessary check on government power.
The provincial government is proposing sweeping changes to citizen-led referendum questions that could put a stop to an active court case about whether it’s constitutional to ask Albertans if they agree with separating from Canada.
A proposal for a hydrogen-powered passenger rail connecting Calgary and Banff has been submitted to the federal government in the hopes of having it fast-tracked.