P.E.I. vacancy rate drops to 1.5 per cent
CBC
With rents rising and empty apartments getting harder to find, P.E.I.'s Official Opposition took the PC government to task Wednesday for what it characterized as a failure to address the province's housing crisis.
New data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation show apartment vacancy rates in P.E.I. — for years among the lowest in the country — took a drop in 2021.
The overall vacancy rate in Charlottetown, Cornwall, Stratford and Summerside was 1.5 per cent in CHMC's annual housing survey last October.
The figures also show rents on P.E.I. increased on average about nine per cent from 2020 to 2021, with the cost of a two-bedroom apartment rising from $958 per month to $1,055.
"Our housing crisis is directly tied to a government failure to adequately invest in housing, particularly public housing," said Opposition leader Peter Bevan-Baker during question period.
"We're seeing incredible population growth in Prince Edward Island," responded Premier Dennis King.
"When we saw the beginning of the boom of our population in early 2000, we were slow to react, and we've been playing catch-up [with housing] ever since. We continue to play catch-up."
Canada's smallest province has for years had the fastest-growing population, a trend that continued with the 2021 census.
Statistics Canada's current estimate for P.E.I.'s population is 165,936.
P.E.I.'s vacancy rate bottomed out in 2018 at 0.3 per cent, but had risen in recent years.
The 2021 rate of 1.5 per cent is more than a full percentage point lower than 2020's rate of 2.6 per cent.
The only provinces with lower vacancy rates were Nova Scotia and B.C.
The King government has pledged to deliver what it has referred to as 1,200 new affordable housing units over five years through a mix of government builds, private developments and rental subsidies on existing units.
According to the province's latest progress update, as of March 2021, 166 new government-owned affordable housing units had been built or were under construction, along with 280 units from private developers.
A Toronto hotel has organized a Christmas Eve buffet lunch for some Thorncliffe Park residents forced out of their condo units by a complex fire.
Residents in Fort Liard, N.W.T., are being advised to use filtered or bottled water and take other measures to protect themselves from high levels of disinfection byproducts called trihalomethanes in the tap water.
Alberta's election agency announced Monday it has approved a proposed referendum question on the province separating from Canada.
One person has been shot by police after allegedly stabbing two people in Toronto's northwest on Monday, police say.
Prince Edward Island's housing market is becoming more balanced, according to new data.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is presenting a new plan worth more than $35.5 billion to keep First Nations children connected to their communities, culture and families.
The RCMP arrested two men who allegedly used a classified ads website to recruit women to smuggle cannabis out of Canada to Nigeria via the country’s biggest airport.
One person is in a critical condition after an incident in Inukjuak, Que., which led to a shoot-out with police.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has picked business executive Mark Wiseman to serve as Canada's ambassador to the U.S.
A man in his thirties is in serious condition after a “targeted” shooting in Kensington Market early Monday morning, according to Toronto police.
One Labrador man is worried he might not make it home for the holidays after Wabush Airport cancelled multiple flights for several days.
Current and former members of Laurentian University’s staff and faculty unions will receive cheques in the new year after paying into a retiree health benefits plan that the university spent on its operational and capital budgets instead.
Shopping local may be the desire, but affordability might decide where shoppers spend their money this Christmas season.