The provincial Green Party leader Mike Schreiner made a pit-stop in Bracebridge as he prepares for the 2022 election.
He was joined by Matt Richter, who will represent the party for the fifth time in Parry Sound-Muskoka, to talk about the Green’s plan to increase housing in the riding.
“I’ve spent (Saturday) meeting with local residents and their voices are clear: there is a housing crisis in Parry Sound-Muskoka, plain and simple,” Schreiner, the MPP for Guelph, said. “And it’s being driven by a lack of supply. That’s why Ontario Greens will give residents more housing choices by making it easier to build duplexes and triplexes and add secondary suites.”
Currently, Schreiner says the current zoning rules in the province prevent the redevelopment of duplexes and triplexes in residential areas.
“If we want to solve the housing crisis, we need to build more homes,” said Schreiner.
He says his party will update Ontario’s Planning Act to allow a minimum of a duplex and triplex construction as-of-right in all residentially zoned areas. The process will also be streamlined with low-interest loans for individuals and families provided to help create more affordable units like secondary suites.
Schreiner says the Greens will build 100,000 affordable rental homes throughout Ontario, create 60,000 supportive housing units, and implement a province-wide vacant homes tax.
This is the second time this year Schreiner has toured Muskoka with Richter. He visited Gravenhurst in July.
The provincial election will be held on June 2nd, 2022. Conservative Graydon Smith, the NDP’s Erin Horvath, Liberal Brandy Huff, and Richter will battle to represent the riding. Incumbent MPP Norm Miller announced in November he will be retiring to spend more time with his family after being the riding’s provincial representative for 21 years.