Housing a hot topic in election forum

Kitchener South—Hespeler candidates also discuss health care, energy, pandemic response

WATERLOO REGION Candidates running in the riding of Kitchener South—Hespeler fielded questions on issues ranging from housing affordability and energy to the pandemic response and health care during a virtual forum this week.

The 90-minute question-and-answer session, presented by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce ahead of the June 2 provincial election, featured three of the riding’s six candidates: Liberal Ismail Mohamed, New Democrat Joanne Weston, and the Green Party’s David Weber.

Chamber president Ian McLean said candidates are invited to participate in its forums if their party is in the leaders’ debates or has elected someone under their party’s banner to the legislature.

Progressive Conservative candidate Jess Dixon did not attend, while the New Blue Party’s John Teat and the Ontario Party’s David Gillies were not invited.

Amy Fee, elected in 2018 for the PCs, did not run for re-election.

Asked about rising housing prices and rental rates, Weston said the NDP plans to tackle the crisis through measures, including increasing supply with basement apartments, laneway homes and granny flats, applying a 20 per cent vacancy tax and ending exclusionary zoning.

“I and the NDP believe that housing is a right,” she said. “Everyone deserves a good, stable place to call home, a place that they can afford.”

A Liberal government would take steps including closing rent control loopholes and doubling the pace of home construction to build 1.5 million homes, Mohamed said.

The Green, Liberal and NDP platforms offer similar initiatives based on sound research on what’s needed, Weber noted. But he said only the Greens are looking at the root cause for skyrocketing prices.

“The biggest issue is really the domestic commodification of our housing supply,” he said. “We have domestic real estate investment trusts that are buying up huge swaths of our housing like concert ticket scalpers, for their own profits.”

On the issue of health care infrastructure, all three candidates supported a call for new hospital facilities in the region.

“The pandemic has demonstrated the need for building capacity in our health care system, particularly in our hospitals,” said Mohamed, adding that the Hespeler area isn’t served by a hospital close at hand.

“But adding beds is not enough. We must support our health-care workers so that these beds can be properly staffed.”

Weber said a shortage of skilled workers could affect everyone from the nurses needed in a new hospital to the construction trades building it. “How are we going to get all these people educated?” he said. “We want to see education be more accessible to people.”

Weston said preventive care is also key in easing pressures on overburdened hospitals.

“We need to make sure we are keeping as many people as possible out of hospitals in the first place, by putting mental-health care under OHIP and investing in things like dental care and pharmacare.”

Asked about a plan for child care that would allow parents to fully participate in the economy, Mohamed said the Liberal party will make child-care discounts retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022, reduce fees for before and after-school care, and create new jobs for early childhood educators and other staff.

Weston and Weber both spoke of making child care an enticing career. Pay cuts won’t lead to worker retention, Weber said.

“We need to value the people that are doing these jobs more,” he said.