Approve city's request for federal housing cash

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If the federal government is serious about addressing the nation-wide housing shortage, it would be a no-brainer to approve Miramichi’s funding request for initiatives aimed at building more housing units.

City council approved an application in August for $13.82 million from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s housing accelerator fund, a $4-billion program for municipalities and Indigenous communities to build more housing faster.

Council also approved 11 projects to submit as part of the application, including pre-approved building plans for middle and small-unit buildings, creating an affordable rental housing stimulus program, expanding zoning permissions for multi-unit buildings, launching an accelerator for integrated housing and infrastructure, and allowing “missing middle housing” in residential neighbourhoods.

Some initiatives have either been finished or are in progress, including municipal plan and zoning bylaw changes to allow accessory dwelling units in more neighbourhoods, promoting accessory units as a development option, and creating a land bank. These steps should bode well for the city’s funding application.

A regional workforce study conducted earlier this year and commissioned by the Greater Miramichi Regional Service Commission could help support the city’s request. Fifty-eight per cent of businesses who responded to the survey and planned to hire more staff this year identified housing as “a major issue” in their efforts to recruit talent in a tight labour market.

Housing has long been considered among the largest bottlenecks to the Miramichi region’s economic growth and labour force attraction. Increasing the supply is the only way to tackle that problem and meet the growing demand for housing.