Priority 06
Housing Accessibility & Affordability
Modernize approvals and partner with all stakeholders so accessible housing for every stage of life gets built faster.
The challenge
Slow approvals and a narrow housing mix keep families, newcomers, and young professionals waiting or looking elsewhere.
Our plan
- Modernize approvals and partner with all stakeholders in the property and development eco-system so accessible housing for every stage of life gets built faster.
- Partner with builders, non-profits, and Indigenous communities to expand all housing types.
- Make Thunder Bay a place where families, newcomers, and professionals can build their futures.
What success looks like
More homes of every type getting built, shorter approval timelines, and a city where the next generation can afford to stay.
Want to help make this happen?
Join the campaign and help turn these priorities into action for Thunder Bay.
Key initiatives
- Accelerate Waterfront & Downtown Development
Accelerate waterfront and downtown core revitalization and all related projects, building in multi-use and vertical high-rise solutions.
- Fast-Track Rental Housing (YIMBY)
Accelerate "Yes, in my back yard" (YIMBY) housing and rental property growth with fast-tracked processes and timelines.
- Preserve Urban Greenspace
Preserve urban greenspace.
- Mixed-Use, Mixed-Income Neighbourhoods
Ensure new greenfield developments are mixed use, mixed income - true destination neighbourhood communities.
Peter's recent posts
Updates on the campaign, the city, and the issues that matter. Follow Peter on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok to join the conversation.
- Housing Accessibility & Affordability
It is time for Thunder Bay to control its housing destiny
September 16 2026
Thunder Bay is facing a housing crisis that is hitting our seniors, people with disabilities, young families, and low-income residents the hardest.
Thunder Bay is facing a housing crisis that is hitting our seniors, people with disabilities, young families, and low-income residents the hardest. Yet unlike most Ontario cities, Thunder Bay does not own housing, cannot freeze rents, and cannot directly build accessible or supportive units.
When Ontario downloaded social housing close to 30 years ago, Thunder Bay’s housing stock went to the District Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB), not the city. That decision left Thunder Bay without the tools most other Ontario municipalities rely on to build homes and protect affordability for the people who need it most.
The time to fix that is now.
Thunder Bay needs to establish a Municipal Housing Corporation. It will be a city-owned, public-interest developer focused on building accessible, affordable, mixed-income housing. Cities across Ontario use municipal housing corporations to build thousands of units, freeze rents for the most vulnerable residents, and partner directly with Indigenous governments, non-profits, and builders. Sudbury, Hamilton and many others are already doing it.
We are one of the few cities without one, and our residents are paying the price.
A Municipal Housing Corporation will allow Thunder Bay to build housing on municipal land, apply universal design standards which include accessibility, and ensure all accessible units remain affordable. It will let the city access federal and provincial funding directly, instead of relying on other sources that can dry up without warning. It will give us the ability to set rent stability policies for accessible units, which is something we cannot do today.
Thunder Bay deserves a housing system that works for Thunder Bay. Together as Mayor and with a newly elected Council, we can make that happen.
Establishing a Municipal Housing Corporation is a concrete, doable step toward building the homes our residents need, and toward a Thunder Bay that works for everyone who lives here.
- Housing Accessibility & Affordability
Thunder Bay's seniors' glaring housing gap in the “missing middle”
October 16 2026
Coming out of the LUSU mayoral forum last week, my team and I heard this many times at the exit door: “But they didn't talk about seniors' issues.” The most important issue we missed that night is the senior housing gap between home care and long-term care.
Coming out of the Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU) mayoral forum last week, my team and I heard this many times at the exit door: “But they didn't talk about seniors' issues.”
The forum had many student-led themes, but these voices are right about what we missed. The most important issue is senior housing gaps between home care and long term care. We did not have the chance to address it that night. I will now.
A new policy paper from WoodGreen, the Ontario Community Support Association and AdvantAge Ontario describes a critical gap many Thunder Bay families know only too well: older adults who need more help than home care can provide but are not ready for a long-term care (LTC) bed. Too many end up in hospital straining capacity there, too.
Jasper Place, a 100-unit seniors' building owned by the TBDSSAB, has 24-hour support staff through the City, but that program cannot serve seniors who need lifting, transfers or close professional supervision. The glaring gap in one sentence.
The policy paper showcases a cluster homes concept where eight to ten seniors share a house with round-the-clock support. WoodGreen reports its model diverted 83 per cent of residents from long-term care, freeing up critical LTC capacity for seniors in need.
In the US, Oregon's state data put community-based care at about US$2,765 a month per Medicaid client, against US$8,975 in a nursing facility. At home here in Canada, British Columbia licensed assisted living years ago, yet its Seniors Advocate reported in 2023 no increase in subsidized units despite a 52 per cent funding increase over five years. A definition alone does not build the needed homes for these seniors.
The study's authors ask the province of Ontario to define the service in law, fund it permanently, and scale what works best. I fully support all three, and as Mayor I will carry that case to Queen's Park, including sustainable capital funding, with urgency and within the first 30 days in office.
The Municipal Housing Corporation I have proposed will also let Thunder Bay use its own lands and partner with non-profits and Indigenous governments, working together with Council and TBDSSAB. Controlling our own community's destiny is what's required for this fast-growing seniors' need.
Seniors and our elders who built this city deserve more quality of living options than just a few hours of home care per week or a nursing home bed. They cannot simply be forgotten or ignored.
I will not let that happen.