“We’re not so much in a housing crisis; we are in an affordability crisis.”
That was the observation this week from Rob Flack, the province’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
He was speaking Monday afternoon at Geerlinks Home Hardware, as he toured several of the outlets in Elgin-Middlesex-London with Home Hardware President and CEO Ian White (second from right in the photo below).
For the St. Thomas stop, they were joined by Mayor Joe Preston and homebuilder Doug Tarry.
Flack continued, “And everybody knows that things are expensive in this world these days. Everything has gone up in price, especially housing.
And when that happens, people put their thumb on the pause button, Number 1.
“And, Number 2, people who employ people throughout the housing continuum, like Doug in the building sector, and Geerlink’s here, who employ all these great people to supply the housing industry, it gets hurt as well.”
When Premier Doug Ford asked Flack to take on the role of Housing Minister, Flack took to the road on what he refers to as his listening and learning tour.
“I virtually went to every nook and cranny I could get to, small towns, big cities, whatever it may be. And when you do, I learned two important things.
“When it comes to housing in this province, it takes too long, and it costs too much to get homes built. And that really has been the struggle. And it’s not just a big city issue, it is an entire province issue.
“Uncertainty has been looming, especially due to Donald Trump and all the tariffs and tariff threats, and it’s caused us, especially in Ontario, to face an existential threat, and we’re here to change that.”
This involves what Flack refers to as dealing with three pillars.
“First of all, admitted Flack, when it comes to what we do best in government, I can tell you it isn’t building homes. It isn’t supplying home builders. Our job is to create the conditions for homebuilders like Doug Tarry and for home suppliers like Geerlink’s here in St. Thomas to do a really good job and let them do what they do best.
“So what can we do? We can create the conditions for you folks to do better, for you folks to succeed. So what have we done? As I said, three things.
“First of all, we introduced legislation. Three bills last year. We came up with Bill 17, Bill 60, and Bill 98. I won’t get into all the names and all the legislative reasons. What we did was we took on the takes-too-long, costs-too-much attitude. What we did is we standardized it.
“So let’s take the building code. Doug can speak to this. The building code in St. Thomas can be different from that in London. It can be different in Sarnia. It can be different in Thames Centre. That’s not good enough. The building code should be King, whether you’re in Windsor or Wawa, the building code should be standardized, and we’re doing that section by section.”
Next, noted Flack, is the official plans submitted by all 444 municipalities in the province.
“They are all unique, all different, very, very, very bureaucratic. We’re changing that. We’re standardizing it. We’re going to speed up the time. We get them approved. In fact, in the last year, we’ve approved more official plans than we have in the last three years combined.
“So we’re going to do an even better job. We’ve reduced the time it takes to get permits and shovels in the ground. And that’s key. That is our job. That’s the Number 1 pillar.
“Number 2 is the HST. So, back on March 25th, we announced we’re going to remove the HST completely, federal and provincial portions, on all new builds. And that is in place. And I’ll tell you folks, it’s had great success.
“We have seen 5,000 more sales in the province thus far this year, since we announced this in March, through the end of May.”
Flack cautioned that the federal government has yet to remove the tax, but that it should be implemented shortly.
“I believe that housing is a basic human right, and it has to be attainable. And we must do everything we can to try to stem the tide of rising costs.”
He continued, “There are over 100,000 jobs in this province related to the homebuilding industry. So whether you’re a builder, whether you’re a building supplier, wherever you are in the trades, over 100,000 jobs are being protected through this initiative.
“And with this growth, what we see will happen in the coming weeks and hopefully within the year, it’ll be just under $3 billion added to our GDP.
“Again, Ministry of Finance numbers, not my numbers, so they’ll be much more accurate than I could be, but it’s pretty neat to see how this is going to be a game-changer.
“The third plank that most people don’t know about is development charges. So a lot of cities, mostly big cities, charge an exorbitant fee if you build a new home. And you guys would know that around here all too well. Although St. Thomas has been a leader in keeping those charges really, really low.”
According to Flack, the federal and provincial governments are going to put $8.8 billion in play in the coming weeks to lower the development charges that municipalities employ.
“We want to see them reduced significantly, up to 30 per cent minimum. And we’re going to fund up to $8.8 billion over the next 10 years to get these water pipes in the ground, to get bridges built, to get transit in place. So it’s a huge commitment. It’s going to create affordability again.
“Because the dream of home ownership should always be within reach.”
Doug Tarry confirmed that without these changes, “We would be in very serious trouble with lots more job losses coming. It’s stemming the tide, and it is very much making a difference for us.
“I believe that housing is a basic human right, and it has to be attainable. And we must do everything we can to try to stem the tide of rising costs. We certainly encourage both levels of senior government to look into the future beyond this window that we have to actually index the HST properly like we’ve been asking for.
“For 30 years, and under Minister Flack, I’m sure that’s going to get a solid look. Yes, it takes too long to build homes. I appreciate that is also being looked at. It is very difficult to bring a piece of property to market.
“And then the last one is development charges. Now, Mayor Joe, we’ve been working as an industry with the City of St. Thomas for a very, very long time. And really, St. Thomas is not an issue. But there are municipalities not very far away from here that we also serve. There are three times the cost for development charges with less services.
“I won’t name specific locations because I shouldn’t. That’s a problem because it’s increasing costs and it’s pushing affordability beyond people’s ability to buy or rent. Or have any safe housing, and we have to continue to address this, and we must do it as a partnership at all levels.”
Ian White of Home Hardware wrapped up the overview of housing initiatives by reiterating that “Measures such as reducing development charges, investing in housing, enabling infrastructure, and making changes to the HST are meaningful steps that enable faster home building, support job creation, and strengthen local economies.”
AND SPEAKING OF AFFORDABILITY . . .
MP Andrew Lawton has introduced a private member’s bill which, if adopted, would eliminate the federal sales tax on used vehicles purchased at dealerships.
Bill C-285, The Used Car Tax Cut Act, could save Canadians thousands of dollars on the purchase of a used car.
In a system that has been in effect for many years, no matter how many times a car is resold, the sales tax is applied each time, despite the vehicle having been taxed when sold new.
Lawton notes that the price of used cars has almost doubled from close to $19,000 to $36,700 since 2019.
He pointed out, “For people in constituencies like mine and Canadians in rural communities across the country, owning a vehicle is a necessity, not a luxury.
“The government should not be profiting off the unaffordability that Canadians are facing.”
We’ll be sitting down with Lawton on Tuesday to talk about Bill C-285, and you can read about that next week in this corner.
HOMELESSNESS REPORT
Kicking off the June 15 meeting of city council was the final progress report of the St. Thomas-Elgin 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan, covering the period 2014 through 2024.
Of particular note was the section on the city’s emergency shelter, The INN.
The report indicated that in 2025, “241 unique people were served at The INN, which represents a decrease of 24 individuals from the previous year. Efforts to expand services to meet these needs continued throughout the year.”
The total number of bed nights was 15,299, with the following breakdown of numbers:
➢ The average stay was 63 nights, an increase of 20 nights from the previous year.
➢ 36% of guests identified as women, 63% of guests identified as men and 2% of guests identified as non-binary or other gender identities.
➢ 9% of shelter guests identified as Indigenous, a decrease of 2% from the previous year.
➢ 9% of guests were youth (ages 16 to 24).
➢ 39% of guests stayed 10 nights or less.
In response to a line of questioning from Coun. Gary Clarke, Danielle Neilson, Acting Director of Social Services, pointed out that the numbers are somewhat skewed by “a small population of people who, for a number of reasons, have been unable to successfully transition from the shelter into supportive housing because of their very complex needs.
“As a result, it creates an average that would make it appear like the majority of folks who use the shelter are staying for excessively long periods of time when, in fact, it’s probably more like 30 to 40 nights for the average shelter user.”
“I think that when we are through with what we’ve been referencing for years now as reaching that functional end to homelessness, it’s simply the start of a new focus, and that is really at looking at all the cracks that exist in many systems that were not designed to prevent occurrences of homelessness from happening.”
Neilson continued, “On average, we know that the guests at the shelter are staying between 13 and 16 nights per month. And again, that is very much an average that’s heavily weighted by other extremes of the population.”
The aim of the housing model employed by the city and its partner, Indwell, is to ideally flow people through from the downtown Railway City Lofts over to The Station on Queen Street.
Neilson advised, “Our practice is that when units at The Station become available, often for good reasons where people have graduated on, either to independent living or to less supports, we prioritize tenancy selections from Railway City Lofts.
“So, when people at Railway City Lofts have stabilized and are ready for less intensive supports, they would be the first group that we would look at in terms of filling the units at The Station.”
Coun. Clarke wondered about the role of the former Balaclava Street Public School, which is in the process of being transformed into 78 units of supportive housing, equipped with essential supports to assist residents, and to be known as Balaclava Crossing.
Neilson indicated that “We’ve just recently done a full analysis of people on our by-name list based on their acuity. We’re working off of that aggregate data to strategically plan with Indwell for the Balaclava project and other projects so that we can create movement across the system.
“To provide people with the supports that match their current level of need and to create that movement and that fluidity that we need across the housing sector in general to help get us to that place of creating housing stability for all.”
Coun. Steve Wookey added, “I want to recognize the challenges that the system has responding to people who are not there (at The INN) on a consistent basis.”
Neilson responded, “I think that when we are through with what we’ve been referencing for years now as reaching that functional end to homelessness, it’s simply the start of a new focus, and that is really at looking at all the cracks that exist in many systems that were not designed to prevent occurrences of homelessness from happening.
“So really we’re just getting started, and I know folks are working hard, and they may be a little exhausted, but we’re actually just getting started, and so I really appreciate those comments and the content around broken stays at the shelter.
“Each situation is entirely unique to what’s happening for that person at that point in their lives.”
Related post:
MUNICIPAL ELECTION UPDATE
A third sitting member of council has stepped up to signal his intention in the Oct. 26 municipal vote.
Coun. Gary Clarke intends to seek re-election along with Jim Herbert, while Earl Taylor, who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Tara McCaulley early last year, is looking to win a seat in the council chamber.
Clarke, a former St. Joseph’s High School teacher, principal and superintendent with the London District Catholic School Board, was first elected to city council in 2014.
We had an inkling that Clarke might join the mayoral race instead; however, plenty can change over the summer.
And, add Geoff Mountenay to the list of candidates looking to win a seat on city council.
Mountenay is a customer service specialist at St. Thomas Rent-All and is well known in the city’s softball community.
That brings the count to eight in the councillor race.
FOR THE CALENDAR
As part of the process of reviewing and updating its Official Plan, the City of St. Thomas is hosting a second public input session.
It will deal with growth management, residential issues and housing affordability.
The event is intended to be a drop-in workshop and conversational session with staff to discuss more specifically residential growth, what makes a “good” neighbourhood, and what are the neighbourhood interests of the broader community, housing affordability and the needed mix of housing.
An Official Plan Relaunch and Visioning Session was held on May 28 at Memorial Arena to explain what “St. Thomas 2051 – Setting the Track for Our Future” is, why it is important to the city, and how to continue to be involved as the city goes through its Official Plan update process.
The latest session is scheduled for June 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Memorial Arena on Wilson Avenue.
For more information on the city’s Official Plan, click here.
Questions and comments may be emailed to City Scope
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
