Riverview Mayor Andrew LeBlanc believes affordable housing is likely to be one of several important social issues facing the town in 2022.
“We’re going to want to make sure we’re on the same page with the tri-communities to ensure we have a similar approach so that developers have the resources they need and the incentives to maybe start including affordable housing in their developments.”
In terms of creating affordable housing, LeBlanc adds the role of the municipality needs to be clearly defined and the relationship with the province will also have to be strengthened in that area.
Meantime, the escalating cost of a new police building for the tri-communities may be troubling but the mayor says the current police station is inadequate and needs to be replaced.
LeBlanc says despite concerns from town council and residents, the rent will only be slightly higher for the municipality.
“We had budgeted early on for a rough rent of about $600,000 and when we got the price tag of $57 million, we really only saw an increase of about $5,000 in our rent.”
