Masham

By Trevor Greenway

Local Journalism Initiative

A multi-unit housing project that could have provided affordable housing to some Masham residents has been quashed by La Pêche council after community members pushed back against the small development. 

According to La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux, 30 Masham residents signed a petition against a four-unit housing development project in the Chemin Labelle neighbourhood earlier this month, with at least one of them admitting that their opposition was based on the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) approach. 

“That is something I heard during the information session,” Lamoureux told the Low Down. “The person was saying, ‘Yes, this is an example of me, in a sort of NIMBY posture’ and then they would explain the context for their decision.”

Lamoureux said about 15 people showed up to a public consultation in early September to oppose the plan. 

Council started exploring the idea of multi-unit housing earlier this summer, after it approved a similar development on Caves Road in Wakefield – a four-unit multiplex. However, when La Pêche launched a registry for a potential referendum on the Masham development, only one person signed it. 

Because the registry was initiated in mid summer, council said it felt that many residents either missed the date because of holidays or didn’t fully understand the process for a referendum. Lamoureux admitted there was some “miscommunication” between council and the public, and that’s why they decided to host another public consultation on the issue. 

When 15 people showed up to fight the plan, council decided to kill it. Lamoureux told the Low Down he was “disappointed” that the project won’t go through. 

“We need to diversify our housing,” said Lamoureux. 

“We want to promote this kind of project throughout La Pêche, especially in urban perimeters, because of how uniform housing units are in rural communities like ours. We need to do our best to increase the number of rental properties in our municipalities.”

Region’s housing crisis in numbers

According to regional housing roundtable La Table de développement social des Collines-de-l’Outaouais (TDSCO), 15 per cent of MRC households spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing. 

The 30 per cent income-to-housing ratio is the threshold used by the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Company (CMHC) to consider a home as “affordable.” 

The TDSCO’s 2021 data shows a major divide between homeowners and those who rent in the region. According to the report, 31.6 per cent of renters in the MRC des Collines spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, while just 13 per cent of those who own their homes spend as much on their mortgages. Of the 835 residents surveyed, most identified a lack of housing diversity, a lack of affordable housing and housing conditions as the top three issues facing the region. 

Lamoureux said he hopes to revisit the project in the near future.