N.S. government ‘setting aside’ the release of its housing strategy | CBC News

Housing Minister John Lohr says he can no longer commit to his government releasing a provincial housing strategy.

“We’re committed to action right now,” he told reporters at Province House in Halifax on Thursday.

“When we’ve got all the things done we want to have done we’ll look at that, but right now our staff are working flat out on getting things done.”

The housing strategy was supposed to be released last spring. Lohr said it was almost ready when the province was struck with historic wildfires and floods.

“We’re setting [the strategy] aside and we’re continuing to just do actions,” he said.

“We’ve done about five major announcements in the last 10 days. There’s more announcements to come. So we’re continuing to be a party of action.”

Lohr recently announced the province would build 222 new government-owned affordable housing units, the first such construction by the province in 30 years. The province also announced this week plans to build a tiny homes community in Lower Sackville for people who are homeless, and funding for temporary shelters made by U.S. company Pallet that can house people as winter approaches.

Along with the provincial housing strategy, the Tory government is also late delivering a housing strategy for students and has yet to publicly release the housing needs assessment, a document that looks at the housing needs of municipalities across the province.

Although it’s unclear when — or if — any of those reports will be released, Lohr said he’s looking forward to the release of a report card on housing. That document is due in July 2025, the same month the next provincial election is scheduled to take place.