Trudeau met with Kitchener mayor to discuss ‘priorities’

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on Tuesday to talk about how the two levels of government can work together to build a better community.

The meeting touched on what Kitchener needs as one of Canada’s fastest-growing areas, including housing, the local economy and striving toward sustainable goals. This is the third visit from the prime minister to Kitchener in the past year, a press release reads.

“Our government is working with ambitious cities like Kitchener to make life better and fairer, especially when it comes to the housing market,” Trudeau said.

In his comments, the prime minister said the Housing Accelerator Fund is one tool the government is using to build homes faster. The lack of affordable homes in Kitchener is a pressing issue that local government has been sounding the alarm about for years.

A recent report by real-estate website, Zoocasa, shows Kitchener-Waterloo’s home prices rose one of the fastest in Canada. The data pulled from 19 other cities placed KW fifth with an average price around $740,900.

“Serving on the front lines of the housing crisis, Kitchener and Canada’s cities and communities know that solutions require dependable and targeted funding to meet our ambitious housing goals and to ensure that we take care of each other and the world around us,” the mayor said.

Vrbanovic said the conversation also touched on infrastructure, as Kitchener, like many cities, grapple with inflated costs of keeping the municipality running.

Recently, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities released a map to improve the quality of life for Canadians by strengthening municipal finance, the release reads. The “urgent” call details how lower tiered governments need to maintain infrastructure to deliver necessary services.

But there is a need for “a new 21^st century municipal growth framework to support them in dealing with these challenges.”