Premier Houston says housing issue is everyone’s problem, asks Halifax council to step up

When it comes to addressing the housing crisis, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says the province remains focused on increasing the housing stock, but says the blame game between governments must stop.

"Pointing fingers and blaming someone else, that's for other people to do," said Houston, but in the same breath, the Premier didn't hesitate in calling out the Halifax regional council.

"It would be appropriate for the HRM council to look in the mirror a little bit too," said Houston. "This is a problem that's been growing for over 10 years and we've been here for two years."

When it comes to addressing the housing crisis, Houston has said all along the answer is more housing, and when it comes to increasing the housing stock and building more units, Houston said HRM can step up and speed up the approval process.

"Here in Halifax we have lots of examples of council dragging its feet on approvals that could see housing built," said Houston, who wants to work with Halifax council on their fee structures.

"That's a council that has sent fees for construction through the roof," said Houston. "Some of these fees have gone up by seven and eight times and every one of those fees lands on the cost of housing."

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage agrees with Houston and says the housing crisis and the homelessness situation need to be urgently addressed.

"I know the term crisis gets used a lot but this to me is a real crisis and it needs urgent attention and the provincial government certainly needs to do more," said Savage.

On Tuesday, Halifax council spent a large part of their public meeting examining the idea of setting up more tent sites on municipal lands to meet the needs of the growing homeless population.

"This isn't a problem that's going to go away and it needs to be addressed," said Savage.

On Thursday, Houston announced a change to the leadership ranks of the public service team, by creating a new executive deputy team that includes four deputy ministers who will report directly to the premier and focus on the province's most pressing social and economic issues like housing.

"It will allow us to bring more talents, more perspectives, more expertise and more insights to those issues across the deputy level," said Houston. "And it's going to be a really good thing for Nova Scotians."

Former Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing Deputy Minister, Paul LaFleche, will join the new executive deputy team along with Deputy Ministers Kelliann Dean, Tracey Taweel and Dana MacKenzie. The province said the executive deputy team will report to Laura Lee Langley, the Deputy Minister to the Premier and Head of the Public Service.

Houston says the province has a housing strategy coming and expects the government to release the report sometime this fall.

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