Opinion: Counselors’ comments on housing show the need for education

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Comments from some Cornwall councilors of late sound like they need better guidance on housing services and programmes.

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Let’s start by understanding the different types of publicly subsidized housing that the city owns and manages and the housing programs that provide financial support to residents. Comments last month revealed that some councilors were unable to define what was and was not transitional housing in the former Parisien mansion.

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Given how few people understand the various types of housing and programs run by the city, we could excuse the general public’s ignorance. We should hold our elected officials accountable for these programs and services to a higher standard.

Another example came earlier this month, as one alderman voted against continuing construction of a new city-owned subsidized housing complex in Morrisburg and another grumbled about taking on debt to complete construction. The comments came in response to the awarding of the contract to build a new 17-unit apartment complex in Morrisburg — both because it will cost $3.5 million more than originally estimated and because the city will need to get a mortgage of $6.5 million when it builds. is completed in a few years.

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Why the opposition and grumbling? Because it’s not in the town of Cornwall.

Sigh.

Council should be well aware that in the 1990s the common sense revolution of the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government in Ontario included offloading full responsibility for all housing programs and services to municipalities. It was one of many devolutions in that era, which also included the land ambulance service and the administration of social services. As they cut the map and had to account for separate but adjacent cities and counties, some were given responsibility for areas beyond their borders.

The City of Cornwall is responsible for the management and delivery of housing and all associated programs within its own borders and in the SDG United States. There is no ‘us and them’ when it comes to housing, it’s all of us, together.

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Ontario decisions from the 1990s mean that Cornwall must be the bank for any subsidized housing projects in the SDGs. Is this a win-win situation and to suggest otherwise? I refer to my comment above about holding our elected officials to a higher standard.

The Shared Services Agreement between Cornwall and SDG stipulates that SDG pays a portion of the annual administrative costs related to the number of subsidized housing units within its boundaries. This new construction will increase that number and therefore increase SDG’s annual payment — or at least help lower its share of those costs, given that the city has opened a new income-adjusted rent building at 550 Ninth St. in 2023 and has its own two-bedroom development in the works at the southwest corner of Pitt Street and the 401 Freeway.

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It will provide younger families living in Morrisburg with 12 income-adjusted housing units in their own community. At this time, families who need this housing must move to Cornwall or Alexandria. It is unfair to force a family that ends up in a situation where they need subsidized housing to have to move to the city; and remember that the taxpayers of Cornwall cover the administrative costs of housing that family as they would now be living in Cornwall.

Subsidized housing is available in South Dundas at Morris Glen Court (right next to new construction) in Morrisburg and Iroma Apartments in Iroquois, or at Park Drive Villa in Williamsburg, which is owned and managed by JW MacIntosh Community Support Services. All three are for seniors only.

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The expansion of subsidized housing in SDG, even with Cornwall forced to be the builder and banker, helps residents in both municipalities.

For those concerned about debt? While Cornwall will bear the mortgage and pay the construction bills, Cornwall property taxpayers will not pay that mortgage. The city receives provincial funding to cover the portion of market-rate rent taxes not paid by tenants.

In other words, the sales and income taxes paid by each Ontario, along with the tenants’ rents, will pay the mortgage for this construction. The payments will not come from property taxes paid to the City of Cornwall. In addition, Cornwall gets the value of the asset — the building — on its books to offset that mortgage. Once that mortgage is paid off? Cornwall owns the asset outright, debt-free, with annual costs covered by someone else.

We keep hearing that these are terrible times for housing for many in our communities. It is unfortunate that some councilors in Cornwall are too focused on looking inwards and cannot see the bigger picture. Spending money on housing in Morrisburg doesn’t cost Cornwall property taxpayers much in the long run.

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