MP Still Assessing National Housing Strategy

The M-P for North Okanagan Shuswap says it’s too soon to say if the Liberal’s national housing strategy will help smaller rural areas like in his riding.

Conservative Mel Arnold says he’s spent a lot of time since being elected on the housing issue.

“I’ve met with community stakeholders at every level on this, and I think a housing strategy is well needed, but from what we’ve seen here, I’ll have to take a little more time to digest it to find out whether it’s really going to work for our type of community,” Arnold told Kiss FM in a phone interview from Ottawa.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the strategy includes a housing benefit that goes directly to low-income tenants and the creation of a financing program for housing providers to help them repair aging units.

In announcing the plan, Trudeau made the statement that “housing rights are human rights.”

Trudeau says the strategy will create 60-thousand new affordable housing units, and repair 240-thousand more through grants.

However much of the money won’t be spent until after the next election in 2019.

Arnold says the plan will be implemented over a number of years.

“It’s a ten year plan, and we know there’s people that need housing now, and we know the needs in larger communities are different than in rural communities,” says Arnold.