HOUSING AFFORDABILITY PANEL MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY

QUEEN’S PARK –Today MPP Hardeman’s motion to create a housing affordability panel to address Ontario’s ongoing housing crisis was supported unanimously by the Ontario Legislature.

“This panel will bring together experts in the housing industry so we can develop real solutions to address the housing affordability crisis,” said Hardeman. “Housing is a complex issue and the solutions need to be developed by industry experts working together – not behind closed doors at Queen’s Park.”

The motion requires the government to create a housing affordability panel within 30 days. The panel has three months to develop a report on housing affordability and supply.

“We’ve heard from too many people that homeownership in Ontario is a dream that is now out of reach,” said Hardeman. “We’ve seen rapidly increasing prices not just in Toronto but in Kitchener-Waterloo and right here in Oxford.”

Earlier in the day, Hardeman hosted a roundtable that included many of the groups he proposed for the panel including the Ontario Home Builders Association, Ontario Real Estate Association, Co-op Housing Federation, Environmental Defence, Federation of Rental-Housing Providers, Ontario Land Economists and others.

“During that discussion we heard over and over about the need to increase supply if we want to solve the housing affordability challenges,” said Hardeman. “The only way to really address the building process is by getting everyone – builders, planners, municipalities, environmental groups and the provincial government at the table.”

Last week, the Toronto Real Estate Board announced that housing prices in the Greater Toronto Area increased by over 24.5%. In the last month alone the average housing price in Toronto has increased by another $44,495.

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For more information, contact:

Ernie Hardeman, MPP Oxford

(416) 325-1239