Northwestern Ontario’s housing needs being overlooked, MP says

By Serena Austin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner and News

Kenora's MP has echoed the mayor's claims that the federal government may be purposefully overlooking Kenora with its new Housing Accelerator Fund.

Last week, Mayor Andrew Poirier expressed frustration at the fact that Kenora has yet to receive anything from the Government of Canada's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), despite the city's having submitted an “aggressive” application.   

Kenora isn’t an outlier, though: the only municipalities in northwestern Ontario to get funding were Thunder Bay and Marathon. This led Poirier to feel that the decision of where to send the money was made based on party politics rather than on the merit of each municipality’s application, as Kenora’s Member of Parliament, Eric Melillo, is a Conservative, while the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North is a Liberal.   

The HAF, launched last March, is a program designed to fund municipalities to help fast-track the construction of housing across the country. To be considered, municipalities had to submit an application last summer; according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), of the 544 applications submitted, 179 led to signed agreements.   

Poirier and Melillo have been in conversation about the lack of housing funding for the region, and the two share some of the same concerns.  

“It's definitely a concern that municipalities in our region have been overlooked,” Melillo told the Miner and News on April 16. However, in fairness, he said, the CMHC announced funding for multiple First Nations communities within the riding, such as Wapekeka and Wunnumin, on April 5.   

“But, still, looking at the Kenora District Municipal Association [held earlier in the year], with such a great housing need we have, it was shocking to me to see that not a single one of the municipalities has been able to be successful so far with their applications,” said Melillo.   

All other municipalities in Ontario that received funding, including Ajax, Whitby, Guelph, Cambridge, and Tecumseh, are in and around the Greater Toronto Area or in southwestern Ontario.  

“I think we've seen too much of this housing support go to large urban centres primarily, which, I don't want to take away from their housing needs,” said Melillo, “but we do have disproportionately high housing needs in northwestern Ontario that seem to be getting overlooked.”   

In his opinion, Poirier has been a “great advocate” for Kenora and its housing needs, as the city's application to the HAF included plans for 700 new housing units. Melillo has also been advocating for housing support in the region by “being an additional voice” for mayors across the riding at the federal level.  

“Speaking with the ministers, doing what I can to support [the municipalities’] applications, and talking about the good work they're doing is definitely the primary concern," said Melillo.  

Throughout budget season this year, the Conservatives have been advocating to get more houses built across the county, he said. “One of the ways we suggested to do that is making sure that there's bonus money available to municipalities that are doing the right things, that are approving new housing units.”  

Melillo is skeptical about the effectiveness of the HAF because the federal government has not been able to provide information on the number of houses the fund has built so far, though the first agreements with municipalities were made only last fall.   

While he can’t outright confirm or deny whether the agreements for funding were made with municipalities based on party politics, “it definitely is a concern that I would share with the mayor,” Melillo said.  

“And if it is the case that happened, it's very, very unfortunate that the government would put party politics ahead of something as critical as getting homes built for people who need it," he said.

“Since I've been elected, we've had success being able to secure funding for municipalities in the region, but to have the whole region completely shut out like this is a shock."

In an interview earlier in the month, Poirier told the Miner that housing will remain a major priority moving forward, so no support from the HAF wouldn't necessarily mean planned housing developments wouldn't be built — the city would just have to find other ways to fund them.   

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