Affordable housing was again a main topic of discussion at a meeting of Belleville city council Monday.
MP Ryan Williams asked council for ideas on a number of challenges facing not only this area but the entire country and one of the biggest areas of concern was housing and affordable housing.
Councillor Paul Carr, as he has done several times in the past, said that housing needs to be seen not as a way to make money but simply as a place to live, a basic need.
“Your biggest investment vehicle in Canada is real estate. Well once it becomes a commodity to that level then it becomes more expensive all the time and we see the runaway costs.”
Carr criticized the banking industry for fueling property speculation and spiralling prices with cheap debt while offering its customers low returns on their deposits with the banks.
And Carr went on to say he believed it was time developers and builders faced restrictions on the length of time allowed to finish subdivisions and other housing developments.
Commenting on the provincial government’s legislation to build more homes faster, Councillor Paul Carr said it was fine for the province to force municipalities to speed up their approvals process by cutting red tape but there was another side to the issue.
“The flip side is we’ve got to put in regulations that actually have builders and developers produce what’s required once they have the approval and not sit on building permits hoping prices will rise”
