Thursday is the last day for Cheticamp residents to fill out a survey to gather information on the housing situation in the community.
Alfred Poirier, the area’s representative on Inverness Co. council, says they need to know what’s happening in order to address any shortage.
He says the survey quickly expanded to the entire county with the help of members of the Cape Breton Partnership.
Poirier tells The Hawk he’s happy his idea has been adapted for the wider community, but he’s focused on Cheticamp.
“My point of view was to just check out the Cheticamp area, because I do see professionals that could be coming in and they don’t have the proper housing,” he says. “We’ve been talking about it for the last two, three, or four years- well let’s get open, let’s move on, let’s see if it’s true, and that it’s that critical.”
Poirier says it was time to do something about the lack of housing in his district.
He says he’s working with a developer who will review the results of the survey.
“We have to move ahead because, if we don’t do this, the population’s going down,” he says. “You know what will happen.”
Poirier says he’s concerned there won’t be enough people to support the growing tourism industry if the housing shortage isn’t resolved.
He says the community would lose the opportunity to prosper.
