Province asks northern cities for housing targets

A number of northern municipalities in Ontario have received letters from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing asking that they set goals for housing starts. It is part of the province’s target of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

Sault Ste. Marie is one of the cities to receive a letter from the Ontario Government on this.

Sault mayor Matthew Shoemaker said he will be working with the city's Affordability Task Force to establish housing targets.

"I forwarded the letter to our Director of Planning, who's the head of our Affordability Task Force, as soon as I received it," he said.

"At a future task force meeting, we will determine what our current stock is, what we've got in the pipeline already and what our goal should be in terms of new housing starts."

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Danny Whalen is the president of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and he said it is obvious from the province's approach that it sees most of the housing need in the south.

"The Province (is) up to 29 municipalities that have strong-mayor powers now - there's none of them in the north," he said.

"The reason is because they believe most of the potential for housing development is in southern Ontario."

Whalen said there is not a municipality in northeastern Ontario that doesn't want to see more development –Mayor Shoemaker agreed, saying housing remains a priority for his city.

Northern municipalities have until the end of the year to submit housing targets to the ministry.