When it comes to spurring economic growth in Greater Sudbury, the municipal government should consider making a handful of key investments.
This, according to local professionals in the construction and real estate industries who spoke during the Nov. 9 Future-Ready Development Services Ad-Hoc Committee meeting of city council.
These investments include bolstering various Community Improvement Plans and Incentive Programs, which offer developers grants, loans and tax incentives to complete projects.
The city’s affordable housing grant program offers the lesser of $10 per square foot of newly created affordable housing, or $20,000 per unit.
This, Sudbury Real Estate Board member Chris Tammi argued, “Doesn’t really make an impact,” noting that a $75-per-square-foot program such as what is available in Calgary would spur the development of more housing units.
“We can provide the incentive for not only units deemed affordable, but I think it should be considered for all new units created,” he said, also noting that incentives to repurpose old schools, churches and underutilized office spaces would also help.
Earlier this year, the city approved a tax increment equivalent grant program which would forgive a portion of taxes for up to 10 years for certain industrial development projects.
Tammi argued a similar such program should be developed for property owners to create secondary residential units, or a grant to take on construction.
“If we do that 500 times across the city, we’ve started to uncover a lot of the shortage,” he said. “I think the city does need to carve out a part of its budget to invest in the creation of housing.”
Tulloch Engineering project manager Kevin Jarus suggested the city should also invest more into talent attraction, with professionals in short supply in various fields.
“The city needs to help us as an industry to get more people,” he said.
“The city could refocus the attention from the mining and resource sector from an economic development perspective, because I’ll be honest with you, the rest of the world knows that Sudbury is the mining capital of the world. ... People in Toronto do not know, though, that housing is affordable here, that we have all the lakes and nature at your doorstep.”
Sudbury, he later said, “is the affordability and opportunity capital of Ontario.”
“Let’s build some affordable housing,” Northern Ontario Construction Association executive director Mark Kivinen told the committee. “We need something, and we need something now.”
There’s not enough suitable housing in Greater Sudbury to accommodate the skilled workers needed to tackle all of the construction projects needed to meet the region’s potential, he said, noting that temporary housing might be developed, such as what is seen at some mining sites where there’s an influx of workers.
During the Nov. 9 meeting, the local professionals who presented also went deep into the weeds of municipal governance to make recommendations. Some of these recommendations included actions to help free up more employment lands, of which Jarus said there is not enough available.
This was the latest in a series of meetings the Future-Ready Development Services Ad-Hoc Committee of city council has held with the intention of figuring out what the city can do to help spur economic growth.
The next meeting is scheduled to take place on Nov. 29, followed by a Dec. 7 meeting.
Meanwhile, public feedback is being sought until Nov. 10, with the general public able to submit their insights for committee consideration. Ideas can be submitted to the city’s Over To You page, and paper copies are available at Greater Sudbury Public Library locations and upon request by phoning 311.
The committee is slated to use whatever feedback they receive to draft a series of recommendations to city council for consideration in early 2024.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
