Strait of Canso area seeks answers to affordable housing woes

Adam Cooke · CBC News

· Posted: May 15, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Housing gaps successful southeastern Cape Breton are the absorption of a caller not-for-profit enactment established by a section enclosure of commerce and 2 municipal governments successful the Strait of Canso area. 

The AtHome Housing Association was unveiled astatine a Housing Matters Forum successful Louisdale, Richmond County, connected Wednesday morning. The relation is simply a associated effort of the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce, which co-hosted the forum, Richmond County and the Town of Port Hawkesbury. 

The chamber's enforcement director, Tanya Felix, said she was "over the moon" to spot the motorboat of a task that afloat brings the Strait-area concern assemblage connected committee successful the hunt for lodging enlargement successful the region.

"In presumption of recruiting and adjacent attracting and retaining radical to the area, lodging has risen arsenic a apical precedence for employers successful our area," Felix said aft Wednesday's event. 

"If we privation to grow, we person to code housing."

The association, which filed for incorporation with the province's Registry of Joint Stock Companies on Wednesday, was primitively designed with Port Hawkesbury successful caput but expanded to see Richmond County implicit the past year. 

'There's a batch of heart'

Before learning astir the AtHome organization, the astir 60 people at the forum heard from panellists who recalled affordable lodging campaigns and concerns successful communities such as Halifax, Sydney, Cheticamp, Guysborough and Antigonish.

Erika Shea, the president and CEO of Sydney's New Dawn Enterprises, praised municipal officials successful Port Hawkesbury and Richmond County for "not letting the authorities disconnected the hook" on current and aboriginal gathering projects.

Bryanna Zwicker, the programme and rank co-ordinator for the Nova Scotia Non-Profit Housing Association, said the Strait area has been a person successful its propulsion for expanded lodging options. 

"There's a batch of heart, and I find the agrarian areas — particularly successful this country — collaborate astatine a deeper level that you don't needfully spot successful HRM oregon successful municipality settings," Zwicker said. 

"I'm ever impressed with this area, and the collaboration wherever we person elected staff, authorities staff, backstage developers and assemblage members coming together. And the engagement successful this country — you tin consciousness the buzz, radical are engaged, and there's a batch of vigor successful here." 

New MP to instrumentality Strait issues to Ottawa

Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, the last talker astatine Wednesday's event, got his archetypal close-up look astatine the Strait's lodging thrust since helium became the area's national typical successful the new riding of Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish. 

Referencing his erstwhile six years arsenic MP for the former Sydney-Victoria riding, Battiste noted "with agrarian [housing requests], it is simply a spot much challenging." But he said his experiences with his erstwhile constituents tin beryllium transferred to the caller riding.

"You look and spot what Membertou has done, they've enactment up full neighbourhoods, not conscionable houses," Battiste said. "So it's each astir moving and creating and collaborating and promoting our needs arsenic a community."

Battiste pledged to bring the area's lodging concerns to Gregor Robertson, the recently appointed national curate of lodging and infrastructure, successful the coming days.