P.E.I. housing strategy will focus on long-term instead of 'silver bullet'

Islanders can expect a draft housing strategy from the province this fall, according to the CEO of the P.E.I. Housing Corporation. 

Cheryl Paynter and other provincial officials appeared before the provincial legislature's standing committee on public accounts Wednesday.

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The P.E.I. Housing Corporation is a Crown corporation under the Ministry of Housing, Land and Communities. Its mandate is to "provide Islanders of low and moderate incomes with access to safe, affordable and adequate housing across Prince Edward Island," according to the province.

Paynter told the committee that emergency shelters are at capacity and determining how much support people need — and therefore what kind of housing is needed — has been part of the strategy.

"It's a big push," she said. "Obviously, as a new department in a crisis situation, we need a North Star governing document and we are endeavouring to do that.... 

"This is a long-term play. This is not a silver bullet."

Paynter said a draft of the strategy will be put up for public consultation this year, along with an action plan. It will include significant changes to the existing 2018 plan to account for the Island's growth as well as for labour shortages and the rising cost of living, she said.

Projections five years ago put P.E.I.'s growth rate at about 2,200 people a year, but last year the province saw triple those numbers.

New builds not matching demand, says province 

Paynter said the housing document will focus on a long-term vision, not on the concrete initiatives people usually notice.

The government said P.E.I. needed to build between 2,000-3,000 new units this year. Last year there were only about 1,300 housing starts.

We know that we are short across the spectrum.— Cheryl Paynter, CEO P.E.I. Housing Corporation

"We know that we are short across the spectrum," Paynter said. "Specifically breaking that down amongst the varying types of housing has been a little bit of a stumbling block."

Already this fall, the P.E.I. government has said it is removing the provincial portion of the HST for new rental builds, hoping to help spur new developments and address the demand for housing on the Island.

The move follows a federal government announcement on Sept. 21 that it was introducing legislation to remove GST (goods and services tax) charges from new rental developments. That brought calls for provinces to do the same thing with the remainder of the harmonized sales tax, or HST.