Minister Hickey was given a tour of the affordable housing site by stakeholders, although the province still has not confirmed funding for the project.
The minister responsible for the N.B. Housing Corporation was given a tour of the Passamaquoddy Lodge siterom local stakeholders in the project.
The 1.6 acre lot behind the Picket Fence Motel could be host to an affordable housing project for employees of the lodge and some seniors who previously have had to look elsewhere due to the high costs of housing in Saint Andrews.
“We will allocate some of the units for subsidized housing for seniors who would like to stay in the community but can’t afford to find affordable rent,” said Caroline Davies, member of the Board of Directors for the Passamaquoddy Lodge Foundation.
After a generous donation by Sue and Vern Lister, owners of the Picket Fence Motel, the project is seeing some headway.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity and I think that the minister will be impressed with what volunteers in this community like to do,” said Davies.
Read also: Passamaquoddy Lodge Foundation pitches help for affordable housing development
“The minister is here in part because of the funding that is available for not-for-profits or for even for-profit organizations to try and get affordable housing,” said Davies. “We’re hoping to explain to him what it is we are trying to do as a not-for-profit organization and what this would mean to us as an employer and to the community at large.”
The project was initially proposed to Saint Andrews council in June of 2025, so it is still in the early stages.
Both Davies and Minister David Hickey told The Courier that the province has not committed funding to the project yet.
“[Funding] means we could finalize the design and we could look at fixing up the road so that we would have become a public road versus private,” said Davies.
She said with funding from the province, and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), they could start building the project in 2026.
“As to when our funding comes in, those are the details that we’ll work out,” said David Hickey, minister responsible for the N.B. Housing Corporation on his visit to the site.
Hickey recognizes the significant housing needs in rural communities like Charlotte County that have gone unaddressed for nearly 40 years.
On his trip to Charlotte County he made stops in Blacks Harbour and St. George to assess other similar projects addressing the housing crisis in rural communities.
“It’s our job to make sure that we’re there to back them up and continue to fund important projects like this,” he said..
He added there is a lot of room for local nonprofits, like the Passamaquoddy Lodge Foundation, to address the need for housing in their communities. He said the N.B. Housing Corporation sees an opportunity to invest and partner with local organizations to tackle the issue of housing.
“In this case, there’s an identified need for seniors housing in the community,” said Hickey. “We want to make sure there’s a reflection of the projects that we’re proposing and the projects that we’re getting on board with that are reflecting the local need.”
Hickey said this project presents an opportunity to the N.B. Housing Corporation to better scope the funding they are making available. He said finding flexibility in the traditionally rigid affordability measures to make sure that projects fit local needs.
But the housing crisis won’t be solved by funding, the province also struggles to meet the labour demand for the construction of these housing projects.
“Some of the major challenges in our labour market and our construction capacity, especially in smaller communities like this one, gives us opportunities to invest in modular [housing],” said Hickey in reference to the commonly lauded modular housing capacity in the province.
“I hope what they see is the vision we’re putting forward on housing is serious,” said Hickey. “It shows the road forward to be able to get us out of the housing crisis and that they see this is a government taking housing seriously.”
Peter Corbyn, the executive director of New Brunswick Non Profit Housing Association (NBNPHA), sees the vision butsaid the province could be doing more.
Watch: Let’s Solve the Housing Crisis: A Talk with Peter Corbyn
“I applaud this minister for being transparent about the situation we’re in,” said Corbyn.
He said he was encouraged by this government’s ability to acknowledge the problems outlined in the auditor general’s report published in June.
Read also: Southwest New Brunswick 2020 Municipal Housing Study Update
Corbyn said affordable housing faces multiple issues in providing housing and the housing project being undertaken by the Passamaquoddy Lodge Foundation addresses those issues.
“I’ve surveyed about 600 seniors about four or five years ago and in rural communities around New Brunswick, and found that 90 per cent of seniors in their next housing situation, their preference would be to move to a smaller rental on one floor in the community they likely lived in for the last 40, 50, 60 years,” said Corbyn.
He said it is unfair to ask seniors who have lived in their communities for decades to relocate to cities like Fredericton and SaintJohn. There should be a way for seniors to downsize to smaller, cheaper, housing in the communities they know.
“Aging in place, not just the physical place they live, but the physical community as well,” Corbyn.
