In each “Behind the Scenes” segment, Village Media's Scott Sexsmith sits down with one of our local journalists to talk about the story behind the story.
These interviews are designed to help you better understand how our community-based reporters gather the information that lands in your local news feed. You can find more Behind the Scenes from reporter across Ontario here.
Today's spotlight is on Oakville News' Ben Brown, whose story "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Oakville to share affordable housing plans" was published on April 24.
Below is the full story, in case you missed it.
Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Oakville to announce new measures that address the issue of housing affordability across Canada, including in Oakville.
“We have a lot of public land in Canada that’s underused or vacant,” said Trudeau during his stop at the Halton Regional Centre on Bronte Road.
“With Budget 2024, we’re unlocking this land for construction and building thousands of new homes – so that you have a good place to call your own, at a price you can afford.”
Among the federal government's plans are ones to build homes on Canada Post properties and National Defence lands, and convert underused federal offices into places to live.
With housing costs soaring and young Canadians feeling the pinch of unattainable home prices, Trudeau says there is an urgent need for action, but that the responsibility does not stop at the federal level.
In response to questions from Oakville News regarding what he would say to Canadians that think the Prime Minister's measures are not strong enough to tackle the housing affordability crisis, Trudeau said, “The federal government alone cannot solve everything.”
“But you’re right, there needs to be more; municipalities need to step up with ambition around densification, particularly around campuses and public transit stops.”
As part of Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan, there's an outlined 3.87 million new homes to come nationwide by 2031.
Regarding the building of “too many homes, too quick” without thinking about long-term effects, Trudeau told reporters that the long-term effects of the current cost of living for young people would be “devastating.”
“The current situation is not just unfair for young families and young people who don’t have the opportunities that their parents and grandparents had,” said Trudeau.
“But me being there to partner with them and ensure that they can afford homes, that we can restore the idea of fairness for every generation, to ask the wealthiest to pay a little bit more, to bring down the cost of rentals across the GTA, across the country - these are the things that get resolved when we build homes.”
Budget 2024 will allocate $500 million to public lands acquisition. Another $117 million will be used as a top-up for the Federal Lands Initiative to “unlock more federal lands for affordable housing providers, with a minimum of 1,500 homes.”
On the heels of Trudeau's announcement made locally, Regional Chair Gary Carr said creating more housing options "is a top priority” in Halton.
“We have active and construction-ready projects in our housing portfolio that position us well to increase our assisted and supportive housing supply,” Carr continued. “Strong partnerships and funding from all levels of government are critical to get housing built as fast as possible.”
Halton Region currently has a population of over 637,000 residents.
The Region has two assisted and supportive housing developments underway:
- 265 Kerr St., Oakville: A new four-storey building that will provide 52 assisted housing rental apartments for older adults, of which 22 are for supportive housing, with expected completion in 2024.
- 1258 Rebecca St., Oakville: This project will provide 14 semi-detached, one-bedroom bungalows for supportive and assisted housing for seniors, with expected completion in 2025.
In a news release from the Region, officials said they have identified “600 new purpose-built rental and assisted-living housing opportunities and invested heavily to ensure these projects are shovel-ready.”
The Region says more sites will be added to its portfolio as they're identified.
For more information regarding the Region’s involvement with the federal government and housing projects, visit halton.ca.
For more information on Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan, visit the Government of Canada’s website.
- with files from Chris Arnold
