Poilievre addresses housing crisis in Pointe Claire visit

By Chelsey St-Pierre

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference in the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre’s parking lot as part of a series of stops where he shed light on hyper-local issues causing delays in housing projects affecting the overall Canadian housing crisis.

Tens of thousands of housing units have been stalled in the Greater Montreal Area, which caught the attention of the Federal Conservative leader. In January, he declared Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante to be “incompetent”, as she continues to stall development.

Poilievre criticized the City of Pointe-Claire for blocking the Cadillac Fairview development plan for part of the mall’s parking lot. “Local bureaucracy is blocking that construction that would allow seniors and students to live next to a massive transit station.”

Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas disagreed, stating that he was elected for the purpose of slowing down development. “Too many housing units have been built without much thought given to the best way to design the urban fabric. This is sensible, responsible urban planning in a community where developers have been given too many red carpets, and not enough red tape,” Thomas wrote in response to Poilievre’s visit.

One thing Poilievre and Thomas agreed on is that the green space for Fairview Forest should remain untouched in the development plan. Cadillac Fairview’s proposal includes two 25-storey residential towers as part of a first phase and single family units in lieu of the green space as part of the second phase. Both phases of the proposed development project were stalled by an interim control bylaw issued in the spring of 2022.

Poilievre said the City of Pointe-Claire could have managed the development better. He stated that under the Conservative government, all new transit projects would be required to include a housing component. “Trudeau has caused this problem by funding local bureaucracies that block homebuilding,” Poilievre told reporters. “Building homes is a 911 emergency and I have a good-sense plan to get it done.”

Poilievre’s plan includes proposed incentives for municipalities who reach development goals and penalties for municipalities that score below the calculated rate of target development. The calculation would include consideration for the size of the municipality while considering the effect and contribution to the overall economy. n

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