A recent presentation to Bruce County Council says that in order to deal with housing shortages, there has to be a more collective effort to come up with solutions.
Julie Scarcella, the founder of EcoSpex Inc., says that through all of the work her team has done, “The message is clear. We need to work more collaboratively together.”
The organization has been working with its own network of housing corporations.
In her presentation, Scarcella says that the private sector will be critical in addressing this supply shortfall because the provincial and federal governments can’t achieve affordability for everyone on their own.
“The vision that we’ve been working on to really look at incorporating a not-for-profit development corporation, to appoint a strong team of directors, a working board, and to really serve housing for all,” she says.
Scarcella says that even though they’re in the development industry, they know that there is so much more to learn.
They’ve been networking with communities across the country, including Whistler, Banff, Canmore, Calgary, and London.
She says they’re hoping to glean knowledge and resources from those communities to help with formulating an idea of how to best tackle the housing crisis that is being seen locally.
“That kind of transfer of knowledge is critically important, I think, for rural Ontario,” says Scarcella. “I think that knowledge building needs to be brought to the limelight, but also shared with other municipalities collaboratively.”
