The municipality of Hearst's…

The municipality of Hearst's key barriers in meeting its housing needs:
-poor or no studies identifying precise housing needs per age groups and ethnics: students, young professionals, new families, retired people, etc.
-constructing firms say that ROI is evaluated at 15-20 years for new apartment units, when it should be between 7-10 years for them to consider investing. Reasons are high material cost, and low rent cost or aggressive mortgage rates.

What potential tools or policies could the government consider to address housing needs:
The Province could create financial and expertise programs to support municipalities in producing (for example) a Housing CIP to stimulate, incite constructing firms to invest in building housing units.
The Province could create program to ensure affordable housing options for households with low incomes.

What kind of flexibility is needed to address housing needs:
Increased flexibility in the Municipal and Planning Act, and the Town's Official Plan could encourage and motivate investments where zoning, infrastructure readiness and other barriers are identified.

Other suggestion:
-Develop and implement provincial or municipal regulation or tools on better forecasting, and ideally preventing housing market "bubbles" with quicker reaction on balancing supply and demand.
-The Town's Economic Development Corporation could invest in developing housing units, if private sector is reluctant