Mayerthorpe approves report on housing priorities, helping housing grant applications

With the housing crisis continuing to be a concern across the country, Mayerthorpe town council approved a housing report during its regular meeting last week. The Enabling Housing Choice (EHC) project report is intended to define Mayerthorpe’s housing development priorities and assist with housing grant applications, according to council’s agenda package.

“This (report) was funded through the real estate association,” Karen St. Martin, Mayerthorpe’s acting chief administrative officer, told council.

In 2023, the town worked with the Rural Development Network (RDN) on the report, investigating how to attract housing development to Mayerthorpe. The non-profit RDN runs the Sustainable Housing Initiative to support housing development through the EHC project. The town stated at the time it was looking at “the barriers and roadblocks that developers currently face in Mayerthorpe.”

The research would involve consultations with the development industry and the report was expected to be completed in May 2023. However, according to council’s agenda package last week, the report’s completion was delayed until September 2023, and council failed to approve it until recently. During council’s Feb. 26 meeting, St. Martin told council that approving the report would allow it to be published online.

Coun. Becky Wells’ motion to approve the report was carried.

Report ID’s Mayerthorpe’s issues, makes recommendations

One of the issues the report touches on is housing diversity, having a variety of housing types available in Mayerthorpe. Interviews in town showed participants expressed a desire to meet the needs of “a variety of demographics,” and to have something available to people of various income levels. Participants also stressed a need in Mayerthorpe for more rental options, according to the report. The report states that Mayerthorpe has two apartment buildings, one with 12 units and the other with six.

“People in Mayerthorpe are buying single-detached housing and turning them into rental units due to the shortage of rental apartments,” one interviewee is quoted as saying. “New commercial investment is generating jobs, but rental accommodations are full.”

An interviewee commented that lack of rental accommodations in Mayerthorpe will cause people to seek housing in other communities, like Whitecourt. The report also states more housing for seniors in Mayerthorpe is “urgent.”

Mayerthorpe already has tax rebates for housing development, for three years; the report recommended extending incentives for five years or more. The report further recommends amending the Land Use Bylaw to cut down on the number of residential land use districts in Mayerthorpe, from the current seven. Having seven causes inflexibility on what can be built where, hindering housing diversity, the report states.

Another recommendation is to allow more residential development in commercial and industrial districts, allowing businesses to house workers. Existing vacant lots can also be repurposed for residential development, the report recommends.

The report notes Mayerthorpe has applied for the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) to support development.

The Town of Mayerthorpe used the EHC project report to apply for HAF funds, according to council’s agenda package.

The Town of Whitecourt also applied to HAF in 2023; Whitecourt adopted its housing needs assessment in January 2024.

The Qalipu First Nation is trying to improve its housing strategy by getting more information from the people who need it most.

Members of the Qalipu Nation have been travelling across western Newfoundland with the Rural Development Network, a non-profit organization from Alberta that aims to support and amplify voices in Canada’s Indigenous communities.

Qalipu is one of six First Nations the network is partnering with to create what it’s calling the First Nation Housing Data Collection Tool, which health and wellness director Mitch Blanchard says will help them better understand where programs and resources should be developed.

“We want to make sure that we have the voices of our community members heard … and make sure that programs and services, you know, is targeting and meeting the community’s needs,” Blanchard said Tuesday. “This is their voices, their stories, which is a different approach from other researches that we’ve done in the past.”

Taylor Sparklingeyes, the data collection project manager, said initial responses have gone over quite well. More than 50 people have already shared their stories, she said, with affordability and a connection to cultural lands emerging as themes.

“”It’s definitely very different perspectives from the different communities so far that we’ve engaged with. It’s very interesting to hear what different struggles they have in different locations across Newfoundland,” she said”It’s definitely very different perspectives from the different communities so far that we’ve engaged with. It’s very interesting to hear what different struggles they have in different locations across Newfoundland,” she said. “There’s really nowhere for members to go connect and be one with nature, which you know, that in itself is a form of homelessness. That loss of connection to our culture and our traditional ways of living.”

Taylor Sparklingeyes

Sparklingeyes said the goal of the data tool is for gather grassroots information that can be handed off to First Nations like the Qalipu to give them the power to make their own decisions on policy and programs. “There are so many different forms of homelessness that First Nations people experience that are often overlooked by, you know, these Western constructs of how the Canadian government defines homelessness,” she said.

“Really understanding it from a culturally appropriate lens will amplify and provide accurate data around … how some of our people are living.”

The final session wrapped up in Stephenville on Tuesday, and data collection in other regions will continue in the fall.