Â鶹ÊÓƵ

MOOSE JAW — City hall should consider changing how it supports housing development by moving from tax abatements to grant funding to address a housing shortage, a consulting firm suggests.

Alan and Brenda Wallace with Wallace Insights presented the

The municipality requires this document — containing in-depth information about the current and future housing needs — so it can

The data

Moose Jaw faces a 940-unit gap in affordable housing, a rising homeless population and low rental vacancy rates of around two per cent, making it difficult for vulnerable groups to secure stable housing, the report says.

Furthermore, the community has an aging housing stock, as 75 per cent of homes were built before 1981 and eight per cent require major repairs. Moreover, 73 per cent of rentals in the secondary rental market — think basement suites or AirBnBs — are unregulated.

Also, from 2006 to 2023, Moose Jaw lost 257 units of residential rental properties. Conversely, there were 256-per-cent more non-permitted rental units in the secondary rental market.

The report recommends increasing the construction of new homes to 155 units per year from the current 43 units, including building 70 units annually of affordable and supportive housing and 80 units annually of market housing for workers and seniors.

It also recommends adding 20 shelter spaces for homeless residents considering that population ballooned from 58 to 118 people from 2023 to 2024. Moreover, there are only 1,322 housing units for impoverished residents but 5,860 households that qualify for those spaces.

Other statistics show that 39.8 per cent of total households qualify for affordable housing since their annual income is over $60,000; 10,245 households out of 14,719 total households are singles or couples; the number of one- and two-person households is expected to increase by 2036; and more rental units priced below $931 per month are required since that is what people can afford.

From abatements to grants

“We think it’s important that you continue to support income growth in order to stabilize your housing market and to see private investment in residential development,” said Mrs. Wallace. “So continue with your work on economic development opportunity, identification, and support.”

She commended city hall for having “transparent, logical and timely processes” and for being a good partner with developers. However, she suggested that administration review the housing-related incentive program and offer “something more meaningful.”

Instead of providing five-year tax abatements for new builds, she said Moose Jaw should “do something more unique” by offering a front-loaded, self-financing grant so city hall could continue collecting property taxes to recoup the money.

“It really changes the way that money is considered by developers and the attention it gets from developers,” Mrs. Wallace added.

When asked to clarify that suggestion, Mr. Wallace explained that tax abatements don’t work because Saskatchewan municipalities are limited to five-year agreement terms. Moreover, Moose Jaw doesn’t stand out since every municipality offers the same deal.

What Wallace Insights has noticed is communities that offer grant funding incentives are attracting developers, specifically, the Town of Moosomin, which saw “a real spike in residential construction” after offering people $30,000 to build, he continued. Also, Saskatoon created a successful, proven incentive model between 2008 and 2014 that helped build over 900 dwelling units.

There are many advantages to this program since city hall could offer the grant over seven years instead of five years, Mr. Wallace said. This could benefit Moose Jaw and attract more developers and buyers.

Mr. Wallace noted that abatements are sufficient for builders who construct dwellings and want to maintain ownership, but most developers build and sell, so the abatement value goes to the new owner. Therefore, the city could offer grant incentives on any parcel of public or private land.

“… the grant has so many wins,” said Mrs. Wallace.

Opposition to report

Coun. Patrick Boyle said it was “ludicrous” that the federal government was forcing municipalities to spend thousands of dollars creating these reports to acquire infrastructure funding. He didn’t think that mandate made sense for Moose Jaw, which was simply attempting to build a new sewage lift station.

If there was a dedicated federal infrastructure funding stream, then the city could apply and be successful or not, he continued. Instead, the city was forced to waste its time on initiatives like this.

Two ways to incentivize housing development were for the provincial government to remove PST from construction and for Ottawa to incentivize tax issues, Boyle added. This would spur more housing construction than giving out grants over seven years, which also required upfront money on the city’s part.

The next regular council meeting is Monday, March 10.