There are many challenges facing Canada and other countries around the world.
And Bay of Quinte riding MP Ryan Williams asked Belleville city council for ideas on how to tackle some of
them Monday.
Williams said some of the challenges facing communities are a lack of housing, a lack of affordable housing, a labour shortage,
the increasing cost of living, health care and mental health and addictions issues.
Williams says his focus in Ottawa will be pushing for more funding for mental health and addictions in hopes of hiring more counsellors.
“Belleville has one of the highest overdose per capita rates in the country and drug use and other addictions leads to homelessness while at the same time being without a roof over your head can lead to drug addictions. It’s a vicious circle.”
Williams also said he’s looking for ways to increase the housing and affordable housing supply.
“We need more housing, more rental units in the $800 to $900 a month price range. Most people just can’t pay $1,500 a month or more for an apartment. The market is changing. With higher mortgage rates people aren’t buying houses for over half a million dollars like they were. We’ve got to find different ways of providing housing that’s decent but not too expensive.”
Meanwhile Belleville council is organizing a summit on health and homelessness sometime this spring.
Williams also told council he’d like to see a list of major infrastructure needs and that he’d press the federal and provincial governments to financially support as many of them as possible.
Williams finished his presentation by saying he continues to press VIA Rail to reinstate Train 651, an early morning train that carried people from Kingston west to Toronto.
