Smith, Therrien in a war of words over housing
Mayor says MPP is ‘missing from the equation’ in city’s efforts
Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith posted a thread of tweets on Thursday refuting a comment from Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien that he’s been “missing from the equation” as the city tries to end homelessness.
On Twitter, Smith referred to six separate provincial funding announcements related to housing — all adding up to nearly $12 million — and asked Therrien why these were “not part of the equation.”
“Trying to read this ‘thread’ is like listening to nails on a chalkboard,” Therrien tweeted in response, borrowing an expression Premier Doug Ford used earlier this week to describe
listening to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath speak.
Therrien made her initial remark about Smith at a virtual committee meeting on Tuesday.
Councillors had been discussing a proposal from city staff recommending a new approach to governing both social housing and affordable housing. Peterborough Housing Corporation (PHC) has proposed to fix up 300 units of rent-geared-tohousing and to build a further 1,100 new affordable apartments (with federal financing).
But to do it, PHC would need the city to cede all control over its operations — which city staff and consultants from KPMG discouraged.
Instead they recommended creating a new corporation to build the apartments and leave PHC to fix up and manage only the 300 units of social housing.
Therrien said Tuesday that recommendation left her frustrated because municipal control over housing is far less important to her than the speed at which new affordable housing can be built — and creating a new bureaucracy, she said, would surely delay construction.
She also said she’s frustrated because she needs help from the provincial government to combat homelessness.
“We have a federal member of Parliament who is very willing to try to advocate for funds here. We have a provincial member who is missing from the equation — that is something I’ll highlight again, that we have the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing that needs to come to the table,” Therrien said.
Councillors gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to put off any decision until a meeting in March when PHC can give a presentation.
City councillors also wanted to hear from county council in the meantime, since social housing is a shared responsibility between city and county.
On Thursday, County Warden J. Murray Jones issued a press release stating that he and county councillors were dismayed to learn they’d been left out of the discussions — even though it’s their social housing system, too.
City council will vote a final time at a meeting on Monday to defer any final decisions until March.