When I worked near Collingwood in the early nineties, I realized that everyone who worked on the ski hills, in the stores and restaurants came from out of town.

The only exceptions were teenagers working part-time after school and those who had lived in the city all their lives.

Housing was, already then, way too expensive for people working minimum wage jobs. People lived in Nottawa or Duntroon, in old houses in the country and commuted into town for work.

There was a lot of excitement when Intrawest built a big housing development in the Town of the Blue Mountains. Population was going to spike, but no one who worked front lines could afford those houses. Yes it was an influx of money – labour and supplies for the buildings and infrastructure, more people to spend at the hills and restaurants. But it was and is a community unto itself, hardly connected to the towns around it.

I got thinking about this because I started reading the Institute of South Georgian Bay’s Affordable Housing Toolkit. The group that put this together includes municipal representatives from Collingwood, West Grey, Meaford, Town of the Blue Mountains and Owen Sound.

One of the points made in the beginning of the kit is that sustainable communities require affordable housing. The kit then points out that because employment is focussed on the service industry, most people earn between 15 and 25 dollars an hour. Monthly housing costs need to be between 1,000 and 1,500 dollars to be affordable. That is hard to find.

Some people do make more. Professionals. Some business owners. And there is a pocket of higher average income in the Port Elgin area because of Bruce Nuclear. But that pocket also skews housing prices and availability in that area. It also creates other differences from the rest of Grey-Bruce: attending International Women’s Day events on the Huron Shore I saw many more 30-something women. There is a different age mix in that area than in most of our two counties.

Although, there are younger people coming back from the city.

When my kids' friends left, they did not intend to look back. You could almost feel the greying of Grey-Bruce as the average age tipped higher. But housing in Toronto and other cities to the south is impossible for people working entry level jobs. Some have found that they can afford to buy here. But these are people working in jobs that require a university education and that pay better. What about the folks who work in the daycares where their children attend?

Sustainable communities require affordable housing. Are we pushing municipal councils to plan for small houses, town houses, in the new developments? I look at vacant places like Georgian Heights and Maple View long term care homes, and I visualize small, affordable apartments. But I wonder what the buyer of Maple View has in mind.

One of the points made in the Affordable Housing Toolkit is that we all need to take on an attitude of YIMBY, yes in my back yard. For a healthy community we need to house the daycare workers and the long term care PSWs. We need to staff the Tim Hortons so that we be in the room with others from the community, encounter strangers, not just sit in our cars to drink the coffee we picked up in the drive through.

I’m sure a developer makes more money from a big, expensive mega house. That’s why Doug Ford’s friends bought up the land that is going to shift from Greenbelt to development.

Ford preaches that this shift is going to solve our housing crunch, but who will each acre house? One family of four to six to two people? Maybe two families? What about the people who will staff the convenience stores and gas stations in these developments? How far will they have to commute? One of the ways to cut our fossil fuel emissions is to live within walking distance of work. Will any of those developments have affordable housing?

The toolkit is a good read. We all need to get on board. You can find it here.  

Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation.