NEWS RELEASE
ONTARIO NDP CANDIDATE PEKKA REINIO
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With a Barrie-Innisfil Affordable Homes Town Hall scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, Ontario NDP candidate Pekka Reinio and NDP Housing critic Jessica Bell are calling for four specific proposals that an NDP government would do right away to help people afford a home in Ontario.
"Housing prices have been rising out of control for years," Reinio said. "It’s impacting the lives of families, seniors and young people who are moving hours away from their families and workplace just to find an affordable place. People are spending such a huge portion of their income on housing that they’ve got no room in their budgets for anything else.”
Ontario NDP Housing critic Jessica Bell said government after government have ignored proven solutions — and that’s got to stop.
“Steven Del Duca's Liberals had 15 years — instead of helping everyday buyers and renters, they opened massive loopholes for speculators to get richer while housing prices skyrocketed, and allowed unlimited rent hikes in between tenants,” said Bell. "Renters and buyers are even worse off with Ford, who scrapped rent control on more homes and drove up prices even higher.”
Bell outlined four urgent actions the NDP says Ford can and must take now include:
- Stabilize rents by making it illegal for landlords to raise the rent in between tenants beyond provincial guideline increases.
- Introduce a speculation and vacancy tax on those who don’t pay taxes in Ontario and who own houses they don’t live in, plus increase the Non-Resident Speculation Tax to 20 per cent, and apply it province-wide.
- Change zoning rules so that developers in Toronto are forced to build more affordable housing in every major development, not just near major transit hubs, and so that multi-unit homes — like duplexes and townhouses — are allowed in all neighbourhoods.
- Immediately commit to funding the building of at least 99,000 affordable housing and supportive housing units.
For anyone interested in joining the Barrie-Innisfil Affordable Homes Town Hall on Tuesday March 22, beginning at 7 p.m., please register here: https://www.ontariondp.ca/barrie-innisfil-housing-town-hall
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