Port Hope, ON – On September 22, Northumberland Affordable Housing Committee (NAHC) hosted a Northumberland County-wide mayoral candidates debate at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope. The event was part of NAHC’s community information and engagement efforts leading up to the 2022 municipal elections that will open on Friday, October 14 and continue until the evening of Monday, October 24.
The discussion format was divided into two, one-hour segments. The first half asked participants to answer any three of five questions on affordable housing posed to them in advance by NAHC. The second half provided a forum for constituents to ask questions from the floor and candidates to respond.
As an extension of the mayoral candidates’ discussion, NAHC sent the same questions to all municipal councillor candidates to give them an opportunity to respond and for constituents to learn more about candidates’ visions for their communities.
Mayoral Candidates addressed the crowd along with Missy Mclean co-chair for the NAHC on September 22nd at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope.
The questions were:
What does "affordable housing" mean to you? Where would you find affordable housing in your municipality? In Northumberland County?
The 2019 Northumberland-County-Affordable-Housing-Strategy proposes that 900 new rental units be built in ten years and allocates them to each municipality. How would you work to build those units or more in your municipality?
Which initiatives would you propose or recommend supporting mixed housing options such as tiny homes?
How will you work with the various levels of government to support increasing housing options within your community?
How would you respond to a resident who objects to zoning changes that encourage secondary suites, intensification, or multi-unit residential building development?
“It was really great to see so many candidates able to make it to the discussion. We were also encouraged with all of the constituents who participated as well," explained NAHC co-chair Dawn Campbell.
The responsibility of affordable housing and social services falls under County jurisdiction and not each municipality. Mayoral candidates were invited to the in-person event to put focus on their plans and platforms since the elected mayors of the seven municipalities that comprise Northumberland County will make up the new County Council and hold responsibility for the County’s housing portfolio. However, recognizing that municipal councillors are vital representatives of their constituents, NAHC wanted to give all candidates the opportunity to weigh in on the affordable housing discussion.
While all municipal councillor candidates received the questions, the below PDFs reflect only the answers received; if a PDF is not identified for a specific candidate, it is because they did not reply.
For more information about the Northumberland Affordable Housing Committee please contact co-chairs Missy McLean at missy.mclean@nclc.clcj.ca or Dawn Campbell at dcampbell@habitanorthumberland.ca.
To see the recording of the mayoral event, see the link below