Making Life More Affordable

Earlier this week I was proud to release three new policy planks aimed at making life more affordable for the residents of Ottawa while being more energy efficient.

Throughout the campaign, I have been talking with residents all across Rideau-Rockcliffe who have been telling him their concerns about how life is becoming less and less affordable. Whether it be through paying more and more for hydro, or the lack of affordable housing, people are having a harder time making ends meet and they are looking for help.

In this release, I pledged to bring forward and work to implement the following policies in the upcoming term of council:

• Work with Council and Hydro Ottawa to create a Pilot energy retro-fit program for rental units and Ottawa Community Housing properties. Instead of giving money to repeat a past Federal government program would again do nothing to address the concerns of approximately half of our households, I propose to incentivize the retrofitting and renovation of rental units to help lower energy bills and make them more environmentally sustainable going forward.

• Work with Council and Hydro Ottawa to create a program to fund the replacement of old appliances in rental units. For landlord-owned appliances, I will work with Hydro Ottawa to offer incentives to replace these appliances, using the energy savings to pay back the cost over time. For tenant and low-income home owner-owned appliances, I will work with Council and Hydro Ottawa to create a loan program based on the principles of micro-finance to allow them to purchase newer, more efficient appliances for their homes.

• Work with Council and Ottawa Community Housing to bring forward a Rent-to-Own pilot project for current tenants of single-detached and duplex properties who wish to take part. This will allow tenants to become home owners, build equity and have full control over their property. In exchange for taking part in this project, the new home owners would assume responsibility for all maintenance and upkeep of the units, freeing up funds that would be dedicated to that maintenance and upkeep over the life of the property, allowing Ottawa Community Housing to re-invest those funds into better maintenance of other properties and invest in the construction of badly-needed new units. 

These are all ideas that came straight from my conversations with the residents of Rideau-Rockcliffe and speaks directly to their concerns and needs. These are progressive solutions that will have a direct effect on the lives of those who need it most, helping to make their lives more affordable while being more energy efficient. These are win-win proposals and if elected, I will proudly bring all these ideas to the council table.