Set Better Housing Targets

All the experts agree — Ottawa needs to build 100,000 homes in the next 10 years.

This is Ottawa’s share of the estimated 1.5 million homes we need to build in the next decade to fix Ontario’s housing shortage.

Unfortunately, the City of Ottawa’s Official Plan uses outdated population and housing targets, that set an artificially low target for new housing.

They are only planning to build 75,000 homes in the next 10 years — meaning 25,000 families will either live and work elsewhere, or sprawl into surrounding communities.

Carleton Place and Arnprior are already two of the fastest growing communities in Ontario. But there is a tremendous impact when we force thousands of people to commute for 45 minutes or longer to get to work.

More pollution. Higher infrastructure costs. Less productivity. Less time spent with family and friends. Higher taxes for those who still live in Ottawa. That’s the impact of sprawl.

Instead, we should properly plan for growth, and build homes in neighbourhoods where people want to live.

We must amend our Official Plan to use current population estimates from the Ontario government, and set a proper target of building 100,000 homes in the next 10 years.