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The housing disaster remains to be Kingston’s high precedence, however different points grabbed town’s consideration in 2024, Mayor Bryan Paterson says
Printed Jan 03, 2025 • 3 minute learn
Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Normal/Postmedia Community Photograph by Elliot Ferguson /The Whig-Normal
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KINGSTON — After years of being the only greatest problem going through town, the housing disaster gave floor to different priorities this 12 months.
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It’s not that the housing disaster has improved a lot, and the municipal leaders nonetheless have their collective foot laborious on the gasoline to see extra housing constructed.
However different points appeared, or in some instances returned, to centre stage this 12 months.
“I think it’s been a challenging year,” Mayor Bryan Paterson stated in a year-end interview with The Whig-Normal.
“There’s been a lot of big challenges that we’ve had to face as a council and try to respond as best we can to each of those,” he stated.
“I feel that it’s a reflection not only of what councils had to face, but I think of just so many in our community that I think are struggling with challenges and just trying to do their best through it and for us to hang together and support one another.”
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Clearly, housing has remained the highest precedence for metropolis council.
This 12 months was the primary the place town was working to satisfy objectives adopted final 12 months in a medium development technique.
In actuality, it’s a medium development technique in title solely because it included annual housing targets increased than any earlier 12 months.
This 12 months additionally noticed work accomplished on a sequence of main coverage research which can be for use to information residential, business and industrial growth, together with potential expansions of town’s city boundary.
Paterson stated town is on monitor to satisfy its provincial housing begins goal however probably is not going to meet the goal set by the federal authorities.
“We’ve done everything we can on the housing front but when the economy is in the state that it’s in, when interest rates are at high levels and projects just aren’t going forward,” Paterson stated.
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“I’ve heard from a number of different proponents that the economics just weren’t working with interest rates being so high.”
The continued scarcity of household docs, the simmering homelessness problem that boiled over in a violent assault in September that left two males lifeless, the addictions and psychological well being disaster and the financial impression of the six-month closure of the LaSalle Causeway, which might occur once more in just a few years when the everlasting alternative is put in.
Paterson stated in lots of instances, the problems metropolis council has to cope with are there results of inaction by the provincial and federal governments that trickle right down to the municipal stage.
“I remark to people all the time how much this job has changed in 10 years,” Paterson stated. “It feels that the challenges that we are facing as municipalities now are far, far greater than they were even a decade ago. That requires more creativity, more collaboration, more partnership and ultimately being able to kind of work through each problem as best we can.
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“With the doctor shortage, I mean, yes, we’ve put $2 million of municipal money into the doctor shortage situation and there’s great progress that we’ve made. But that’s $2 million that is now not going to be spent on roads and parks and other key pieces of city building, which has always been our bread and butter. That’s what we do as a city.
“I think that that’s where I think there’s some frustration but also understand that at the end of the day when there’s a crisis, you cannot, turn a blind eye to it and we can’t just say, ‘Well, it’s not our problem to fix.’ We’re on the front lines; we see suffering in our community and we have to respond to it as best we can.”
Paterson acknowledged that none of those large points could be solved by town alone and that partnerships with different municipalities and higher ranges of presidency shall be more and more vital.
Paterson pointed to the regional mayor’s council that Kingston is a part of the brings collectively leaders of Japanese Ontario municipalities to work on frequent issues.
Heading into the third 12 months of council’s four-year, Paterson stated 2025 stated he expects council to listen to extra a couple of proposal for a brand new downtown convention centre and proceed discussions with the federal authorities a couple of everlasting alternative for the LaSalle Causeway bridge.
Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson in Kingston, Ont. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Normal/Postmedia Community Photograph by Elliot Ferguson /The Whig-Normal
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