After watching from the sidelines while a number of Saskatchewan communities have been hard at work, the provincial government has decided to get involved with the affordable housing shortage.
At last week's Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities meeting in Saskatoon, the government announced it will lead the development of a comprehensive strategy which will be completed by June. According to a government press release, the strategy will be developed by Saskatchewan Housing Corporation along with stakeholders in the housing industry, rural and urban municipalities, home builders and developers, real estate organizations, chambers of commerce and community-based organizations.
"The strategy will be long-term, targeted and strategic," Social Services Minister and Minister responsible for Saskatchewan Housing Corporation June Draude said. "It will include measures that will have an immediate, positive impact, as well as changes that will ensure a well-functioning housing system into the future."
Councillor Chris Istace was part of the City of Estevan delegation at last week's SUMA convention and attended a meeting with Draude that focused on the housing situation. He said a number of communities from throughout the province are dealing with similar problems as Estevan and expressed those concerns to the minister.
"Every community came on board and said this is a crisis. The mayor of Prince Albert thinks they have a ghost population of 3,000 people who are staying with friends or family, catching a bed here, a couch there," said Istace who noted the construction of apartment buildings was the focus of the discussions in Saskatoon.
"All the communities are doing something to give incentives for people to build apartments but really, it's come down to where the (province) needs to give the investors a real benefit to doing that.
"We looked a things like a per door rebate, something that offsets capital costs to make it affordable to do it. We really need to take the burned off the municipal governments. As a community we are trying to do everything we can, but the provincial government needs to step up and get something done."
Istace said the government wants to have a housing summit in April that will include groups from throughout the province. The government press release says that a three-day summit will run from April 19 to 21 and the information gained from that summit will be used to develop the final strategy.
"Once completed, the strategy will help bring clarity to all levels of government, including municipalities, various ministries of the provincial government, as well as stakeholders such as builders and developers on each of our roles in delivering housing solutions," Draude said. "The overall aim of the housing strategy will be to support a growing population and make certain that housing is accessible to all people in Saskatchewan."
Istace said he came away from the meeting with Draude confident the government was serious and that something of substance is forthcoming.
"We kept saying, it's not a study and they said no, this is a strategic plan that we want on the ground in June and everybody kept pushing that saying is that going to be the case and hopefully it is."
