In light of the lack of affordable rentals for people under 50 and other complications in Fort Frances, Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski spoke with the Fort Frances Times about some potential solutions to these complications. Polowski alluded to some potential support under Mark Carney, although this is not typically under the federal government’s mandate.
“It’s an issue that primarily affects large cities where, obviously, if you want to buy a house in Toronto or Vancouver, even if you have a couple where both people are doctors, it’s hard to afford a house. So certainly the problem isn’t as acute in places like Fort Frances, but the problem is still there,” said Powlowski.
“I think certainly in a place like Fort Frances, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem with immigrants in that yes, to get people to work in places, you need more housing.”
While comparing Fort Frances to Vancouver is not the most representative comparison, buying a home in Fort Frances is assuredly cheaper than in Vancouver. However, that doesn’t begin to address the issue of a distinct lack of affordable rentals in Fort Frances. Only ten single-occupant, rent-geared-to-income housing suites are available in Fort Frances, one of which caught fire in the summer of last year, according to information from the District of Rainy River Services Board (DRRSB).
The rent-geared-to-income two-bedroom homes in Fort Frances almost all cost $1,235, save for homes through Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services. So, options for low-income rentals in Fort Frances are limited for anyone else. Not only that, but the asking rent in Edmonton, a city with amenities like a more robust transit system, an international airport, and more, is cheaper for a subsidized two-bedroom unit at $1,035 monthly, according to myhomeed.ca. A $200 monthly savings could go a long way towards improving a better quality of life. That could be a car payment or saved for a down payment on a house.
Edmonton isn’t the only medium-sized Canadian city with cheaper subsidized rentals, either. The Willow Park Housing Co-Op shows that some areas of Winnipeg have even lower prices for two-bedroom co-op housing units at $879 monthly. Saskatchewan also has subsidized two-bedroom rentals ranging in price from $730 to $1230, according to the Province’s recently revised Social Housing Program Rate Schedule.
“Affordable housing is important; it isn’t the same extent of a problem in a place like Fort Frances as it is in places like Vancouver [or] Brampton, but I agree it is a problem,” said Powlowski.
“The reality is, in a lot of places, and a lot of places like Toronto and Vancouver and even Thunder Bay, a lot of the immigrants end up living in houses with a whole bunch of other people, with a whole bunch of other people in single rooms. I certainly don’t think it’s better, in that people are going to move to Toronto because of affordable housing. If anything, the opposite is the case.”
While Powlowski suggests people will immigrate to Fort Frances in search of cheaper rent, even cheaper rentals continue to exist in medium-sized Canadian cities like Edmonton, Winnipeg, and some parts of Saskatchewan. As Fort Frances struggles to get the labour, entrepreneurship, and expertise needed to build affordable rentals, the available subsidized or rent-geared-to-income rentals aren’t that competitive with other parts of the Canadian housing market.
“It’s a supply and demand issue at the moment,” said Powlowski.
“You have an ageing population, and you have a lot of people, and I’m sure it’s in Fort Frances, and the same in Thunder Bay. You have a lot of people who live in a house, but it’s only one person now, it’s grandma or grandpa or a couple, who, at one point, had a family, and the family has all moved out. There are a lot of homes in places like Fort Frances. I think if there were readily available housing for the elderly, people would be happy to leave their homes so they didn’t have to shovel their driveways anymore. They didn’t have to cut the grass. They live in a housing complex for the elderly.”
There are 139 rent-geared-to-income units for the elderly in Fort Frances, 29 of which are eligible for those over 50, while there are exactly 130 rent-geared-to-income family homes. Maybe more is needed. But that further complicates the situation because of labour shortages and cheaper rentals available in multiple municipalities with more amenities.
“A big impediment to building, it seems to me, in Northwestern Ontario, is not enough firms are constructing buildings, and a big problem is the labour shortage,” said Powlowski.
“Traditionally, this is not part of the federal government’s mandate to provide everybody with housing in life. The only other time when the federal government was heavily involved in housing was after the Second World War. Over the years, the federal government’s investment in housing has gone down. It’s been left to the market. But, I think the government does realize, and if you look at all the programs that the government rolled out in recent years, it has been an attempt to address the problem and intervene in the market to stimulate building a new home.”
So, with a labour shortage across Northwestern Ontario and a federal government that typically doesn’t have housing under its purview, where do we go from here? What are some potential solutions? For Powlowski, that is something that first needs an available workforce to solve.
“I have been very involved with other members across Canada on the labour workforce shortage issue. We are, as you may know, if you look at what our government has done, and we’ve stated the fact that we want to decrease the number of temporary foreign workers in the workforce from seven point five per cent to five per cent of the population by immigration, mostly because of the housing issue,” said Powlowski.
“However, in a place like Frances, I think that the bigger need is the labour workforce. Yes, we have to deliver on the housing. We have to address the housing. But, a big part of the answer for the housing is the labour and bringing entrepreneurial people into places like Fort Frances that are going to want to stay in Fort Frances, going to want to buy houses in the Fort, wanting to build houses. My big concentration has been in trying to carve out a separate approach for smaller, small towns and medium-sized towns, in addressing that issue.”
