KENORA — Mayor Andrew Poirier says his community intends to use a housing analysis study that’s under development to help underscore a pressing need to senior levels of government.
Poirier said the city has commissioned a third party to develop a study that he said should be completed by the end of August or early September. Poirier said having a strong analytical piece in hand should help when approaching the provincial and federal governments for housing dollars.
“We have data to show that we definitely do have a housing shortage, I mean we hear it every day,” he told Newswatch. “We get (information) from employers, we get it from all kinds of social agencies that they just cannot hire people because there's no place for them to live.”
Kenora’s application to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund was denied in 2024, a decision that Poirier and the area's Conservative MP have spoken out about.
The city, Poirier added, has received some provincial money towards various development projects. Poirier said he hopes this soon-to-be-completed study will attract more attention to his city’s needs.
“We know what it's going to show, that we do have a housing shortage and we're hoping that in discussions that's a piece of very important data that can be shared and presented to other levels of government,” he said.
“And even to developers when they're looking to possibly come to Kenora and look at building and that if they see that there's a huge need, and most of them that are here now doing stuff realize that, then that might attract even other developers.”
Poirier said he’ll be watching the upcoming federal budget to see what it may hold that could help Kenora.
“We're getting what we can at the provincial level and that, but there's also another level of government who keeps touting housing, housing, housing,” he said, adding that he realizes there is a finite amount of money to go around. “Give us some of those financial tools to do it, and we'll do it.”
“The best level of government to get stuff like that done is when money flows into municipalities and developers at the local level — that's what gets it done.”
Poirier said he’s met and spoken with Kenora-Kiiwetinoong MP Eric Melillo about access to federal funds, “and he’s advocating on our behalf.”
He said city staff and municipal council will continue to press the point that Kenora needs more housing.
“I understand there's X number of dollars and it was probably way oversubscribed, but that doesn't mean that we should just accept it and say ‘well, we didn't get money so let's just move on,’” he said.
“We're trying to help solve the housing crunch, which is right across the country, so we're trying to do our part here as a municipality.”