Crisis echoes across country
Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee says affordable housing discussed at FCM meetings in Ottawa
Mayors across Canada say there is an affordable housing crisis in the country, says Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee.
Lee is recently back from a trip to Ottawa where he attended the annual conference and trade show of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). And affordable housing was on everyone’s mind.
Actually, Lee had just given a speech on this topic just days before to the Rotary Club of Hillsborough. And, he heard it again in Ottawa.
“I attended a fantastic workshop on affordable housing (and) got a lot of information from what is happening in Edmonton, Thunder Bay and Toronto,’’ Lee said, referring to the Alberta and Ontario cities respectively.
“I’m going to ask our staff to do some research
“I was very pleased a few weeks ago to hear the province announce federal government money coming in for social housing. It’s a question of how we move forward. It seems as time moves forward more and more organizations and levels of government are becoming engaged, which I think is great.’’ Mayor Clifford Lee
and find out exactly what the reports from those three communities is all about.’’
He isn’t sure how Charlottetown moves forward on the issue, just that it has to.
Lee has been pressing for a national housing strategy for years now. The FCM has also been pushing Ottawa for details on its promised strategy. The Trudeau government announced plans to spend $11.2 billion on this strategy but few details have been released.
He knows the P.E.I. government will have to be involved and should probably take the lead.
“I was very pleased a few weeks ago to hear the province announce federal government money coming in for social housing. It’s a question of how we move forward. It seems as time moves forward more and more organizations and levels of government are becoming engaged, which I think is great.’’