I am an advocate for…

I am an advocate for affordable housing. I am also an advocate for heritage. It seems extremely misinformed that the government of Ontario is taking a mutually exclusive approach to these two issues. In my 15 years of working in heritage in a small municipality, I have yet to encounter a situation where a heritage designation or listed property was a barrier to new housing.
It has repeatedly been proven that tearing down existing homes to build new ones is not a cost-efficient way to create more housing. This approach also has a much higher carbon impact (not that this government seems particularly interested in the environment). The proposed changes to the Ontario Heritage Act will leave many perfectly good homes vulnerable to demolition, in an attempt to make way for poorly constructed slapped together homes that will be falling apart in 25 years.