Home Ownership
A top issue for us is housing costs and yet, we have 19,000 unbuilt homes. That’s 19,000 homes whose price tag goes up each and every day. Red tape delays impact housing costs by 100’s thousands of dollars. How so? The current market forecasts that a $500,000 house for sale in April of this year (if you can find one) will sell for $600,000 or more in April of next year.
If housing is an essential part of our lives, we need to give it a preferred approval route.
We need to get bureaucracy out of the way, it takes far too long to plan and approve housing.
Bureaucracy continues to add to the financial burden on all of us. Red tape delays for home builders, renovators, and homeowners looking to improve mean cost increases for buyers.
We need to challenge the province to rethink the massive Ontario Building Code, while it keeps us safe, it dramatically increases building costs and in many instances is trying to solve a problem that does not exist. The code needs its language updated to ensure interpretations by all parties are consistent.
I will advocate for new tools that will allow Barrie to work with the province so we can advance the building of the “missing middle” housing and advance the creation of appropriately constructed multigenerational homes.