{"id":24916,"date":"2019-10-10T18:08:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24916"},"modified":"2019-10-10T18:08:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:08:20","slug":"affordable-housing-in-focus-at-all-candidates-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/affordable-housing-in-focus-at-all-candidates-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable housing in focus at all-candidates debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of affordable housing in the Aurora area is a\nchallenge that has been recognized by all levels of government in recent years,\nbut despite the issue coming into sharp focus every time a new multi-unit\nresidential build is proposed, concrete solutions have yet to come forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an issue that is top of mind for many voters, and\nit is an issue Aurora\u2019s candidates had to face head-on last week at the Aurora\nChamber of Commerce\u2019s All-Candidates debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates from all party stripes from both sides of\nAurora\u2019s riding divide had the chance to tell potential voters just how a vote\nfor them would help alleviate the pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First to tackle the matter was Newmarket-Aurora NDP\ncandidate Yvonne Kelly, who said her party is offering a \u201cstrong housing\nplatform\u201d and, if elected, intends to bring forward a National Housing\nStrategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had one of those in the 1990s and the Liberals\ndecided to leave housing and the building of affordable housing stock to the\nmarketplace,\u201d said Ms. Kelly. \u201cWe all know how well that turned out. Now, we\u2019re\nliving in a time of housing crisis, not only in Aurora, but right across\nCanada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing a point made earlier in the debate by\nNewmarket-Aurora Liberal candidate Tony Van Bynen on attracting people to this\ncommunity for business, she said employment and housing go hand-in-hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An NDP government would \u201cinvest heavily\u201d in housing,\nfacilitate 30-year mortgage rate extensions, and create 500,000 units of\n\u201cquality affordable housing over the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll scrap the Federal portion of the GST and HST for\nthose constructing new affordable units [and offer incentives] to kickstart the\ndevelopment of co-op social housing and non-profit housing,\u201d she said, noting\nthat she has visited area co-ops and found them \u201cwonderful\u201d but residents are\nworried about their long-term viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further proposals include investing in energy retrofits\nand \u201cstanding up to speculators and foreign investors\u201d who are buying homes and\ndriving up housing prices \u201cwithout any intention of living here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to address this national crisis we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew McCaughtrie, Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s candidate for the\nPeople\u2019s Party of Canada, joined the conversation next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He addressed the issue from a standpoint of \u201cimmigration\u201d\nstating his party proposes reducing the number of immigrants coming into Canada\non a per-annum basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to take a lot of pressure off our\naffordable housing and a lot of pressure off new builds,\u201d he claimed. \u201cOur\npopulation is simply growing too fast right now and we need to take a step back\nand figure out how we\u2019re going to deal with all these things. I know our\nhospital in Newmarket is pretty much at capacity. The population is growing too\nfast for the hospital to keep up as well. These are real problems that are\naffecting people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the remaining parties at the table picked up the\nthread of these immigration claims and instead focused on their party\nplatforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newmarket-Aurora Conservative candidate Lois Brown, in\nher response, cited a speech made earlier this year by York Region Chair Wayne\nEmmerson who said a solution for the affordable housing problem will require\nboth the Federal and Provincial governments to come to the table. Citing the\nConservatives\u2019 proposal to make things easier for first-time homebuyers by\nremoving the stress test on mortgages, she said she did agree with the NDP on\nsome proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst, we want to fix the mortgage stress test,\u201d said\nMs. Brown. \u201cSecondly, we want to increase the amortization of insured mortgages\nto 30 [years], so NDP, thank you for coming to the table. We want to launch an\ninquiry into money laundering in the real estate market. We need to work with\nour Provincial counterparts on that initiative and thank you to the NDP for\nsaying they would support us in that. The last thing that we think we have the\nability to do is make surplus Federal properties available for development in\nall our urban areas.\u201d
\nFirst-time home buyers were top of mind for Walter Bauer, Green Party candidate\nfor Newmarket-Aurora. Looking back 20 years, Mr. Bauer said the area was a draw\nfor \u201clargely first-time buyers\u201d but this is not the case anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cContrary to what you just heard the Conservatives say,\nforeign ownership under the Harper government was encouraged,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\nintroduced the immigrant investor venture capital pilot program. What that did\nis it encouraged foreigners to come and buy property here even though they\nweren\u2019t living here. It encouraged speculators and money launderers. The Green\nParty would eliminate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora is currently almost fully developed, but we need\nmore high-density affordable housing. The Green Party would appoint a minister\nof housing, provide $750 million for new builds \u2013 that\u2019s 3,000 homes \u2013 provide\ntax incentives for the conversion of existing properties to rental housing,\n$750 million to rent assistance, correct Air BNB misuse, finance co-op housing,\nprovide additional shelters for the homeless. The Green Party would legislate\nhousing as a fundamental human right, as opposed to just throwing it out to\nprivate sector and having numerous homeless on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a former banker, Newmarket-Aurora Liberal candidate\nTony Van Bynen addressed the Conservatives\u2019 proposal to eliminate the mortgage\nstress test. Such tests, he said, are important because he has seen \u201cwhat has\nhappened to families because they didn\u2019t know how they are going to make their\nnext mortgage payment \u2013 and that is because somebody wilfully put them into a\nsituation they can\u2019t afford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery Canadian should have a safe and affordable place\nto call home,\u201d he said, noting his community volunteerism including, as Mayor\nof Newmarket, helping to spearhead the Belinda\u2019s Place shelter for homeless\nwomen, which has helped find a permanent home for more than 200 women in the\npast 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He cited the example of the apartments at 212 Davis\nDrive, Newmarket, the first private rental unit built in York Region in 20\nyears as a success story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to make investments to improve the availability and the affordability of our housing,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Federal Government has created Canada\u2019s first national housing strategy. We have committed $55 billion over 10 years and we\u2019re committing to make that happen for new units, for renovations, for affordable housing units. The platform the Liberal government has announced just recently includes an increase to the first-time homebuyers [guide] where we moved the value of the purchase up to 800,000 and we\u2019re also going to be putting in a 1 per cent non-resident tax for foreign speculators.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill Libertarian candidate\nSerge Korovitsyn ended the discussion with a kicker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stating the Federal and Provincial government needs to\nmake land available for new developments, he said, \u201cThere is no such thing as\naffordable housing. It is never affordable. It is affordable if you work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lack of affordable housing in the Aurora area is a challenge that has been recognized by all levels of government in recent years, but despite the issue coming into sharp focus every time a new multi-unit residential build is proposed, concrete solutions have yet to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6tS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 19:25:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}