Affordable housing, fire service consolidation focus of Newmarket debate

Regional councillor hopefuls Chris Emanuel, Joan Stonehawker and Tom Vegh participate in debate

Yorkregion.com
October 1, 2018
Teresa Latchford

Providing affordable housing will have a positive ripple effect on the Newmarket community.

It was a reoccurring theme as Newmarket regional councillor and deputy mayor candidates Chris Emanuel, Joan Stonehocker and Tom Vegh took the stage at the local theatre for a candidate debate hosted by the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce.

“It is cost-prohibitive to live here,” Emanuel said. “We need a good mix of housing as not everyone wants to live in a highrise on Yonge St. It’s not a sexy issue folks, but it’s critical.”

Senior citizens want to remain in the town they have lived in but have nowhere to go when they are ready to downsize. Young families and single professionals can’t afford to buy a home. Large companies like Celestica are having difficulty finding living accommodations for staff after relocating from Toronto.

All of these scenarios have an impact on the local economy and future economic development opportunities, such as attracting more businesses to locate in Newmarket resulting in missed employment opportunities.

Vegh pointed out that the current town council was successful in bringing a purpose-built rental building, located at 212 Davis Dr., through the use of incentives to the developer. This included deferring development charges, he claims, with interest.

He also pointed out that a proposed mixed housing development on Deerfield Road that is intended to include rentals and condominiums as well as some affordable units will be incentivized too.

“As a town, we have yet to set out a formal framework for these incentives to help attract affordable housing options to Newmarket,” Vegh added.

If elected, he plans to create such a framework.

However, later in the discussion, when he stated he was against a municipal land transfer tax, Vegh stated he was against subsidizing developers and shouldn’t be paying for infrastructure developers benefit from.

Stonehocker feels the town needs to start thinking creatively about infill since the town is nearly built out.

“In other parts of the world, there are larger buildings built on top of historical buildings,” she said. “It preserves the town’s history and creatively adds housing options.”

The candidates pitched a variety of promises touching on fiscal responsibility, economic development and opting in or out of cannabis distribution.

Emanuel believes the town needs to get its fiscal house in order. The first step, he proposed, would be to consolidate the fire services across York Region.

“Gone are the days of needing eight fire services and eight fire chiefs,” he said.

“I would like to promise the world, but it’s just not affordable.”

Stonehocker believes that green energy is the future of business and the transit system needs major improvements. Two things she would pursue in an attempt to boost economic development.

While Emanuel and Stonehocker agreed there isn’t enough information available about the distribution of cannabis rules from the province to decide whether Newmarket should opt in or out, Vegh said he would opt out.

“You notice we don’t have strip clubs in Newmarket,” he said. “It will attract people we don’t want here.”