Housing a top issue in Bay of Quinte ahead of June election

The Bay of Quinte riding has only been contested provincially one time, in 2018, after the riding was created from Northumberland—Quinte West and Prince Edward—Hastings.

The area has been conservative of “blue” for over 10 years. In June, Bay of Quinte voters will decide if they want to stay the course, or if it’s time for a change.

The incumbent is Todd Smith, a high-profile member of the PC Party of Ontario who was first elected to represent the then Prince Edward-Hastings riding in 2011.

According to the Quinte District and Area Realtors Association, the average price for a house in Belleville, Quinte West and Prince Edward County was $756,008 in March of this year, a near 24 per cent increase over the same month last year

Smith said that if re-elected, his party’s recent budget would help combat the housing crisis.

“The legislation that we’ve passed and the budget to build Ontario is going to allow us to add to the supply that we desperately need in the Quinte area and make sure that we get building houses of all types faster,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, Liberal challenger Emilie Leneveu, a first-time candidate, says there is a need for more housing developments.

“The first thing the Ontario Liberal Party would do is to look into more affordable housing, but more multi-unit housing and how we can be a little bit more innovative instead of building single-family homes,” Leneveu said.

In Prince Edward County, Ontario NDP candidate Alison Kelly says rising rent and a shrinking rental market are making affordable housing even further out of reach.

“We’re going to ensure that the rent that the former tenant paid is what will be passed on to the next tenant,” Kelly said. “We’re going to address the speculators and how that’s happening.”

She said that real estate speculators are harming the housing market and that the NDP would also work to counteract that.

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Another pressing issue in the Bay of Quinte riding is the doctor shortage.

With many older doctors set to retire and others shutting down their practices due to pandemic stress or other reasons, the supply of family physicians is diminishing faster than it can be replenished.

“We’ve already announced a plan to increase medical spaces using Queen’s Medical School and Lakeridge Health to create 50 new residency spaces in this part of Ontario,” Smith said.

“We really need to work with our municipalities to strengthen these programs, look at the programs that are working, and ensure that all of our municipalities … are working hard to get that done,” Leneveu added.

Ontario also needs to look into why the province is not able to train and graduate more doctors, Kelly added. “What’s happening? It’s broken. It’s a broken system and it needs to be fixed,” Kelly said.

Other candidates running for the provincial seat in the Bay of Quinte include Erica Charlton for the Green Party of Ontario and Rob Collins running for the New Blue party.

Other pressing issues in the Bay of Quinte include drug-related overdoses, homelessness, and getting reliable internet to rural communities — all things that these candidates say would be on their to-do list if elected.