5 maintenance staff for P.E.I.'s 1,600 public housing units 'a significant staff shortage,' says minister

P.E.I.'s Minister of Housing says his department has begun hiring more staff to perform maintenance at government-owned housing complexes, trying to catch up on years of underfunding and neglect of units the government rents out to some of the poorest residents in the province.

In question period Tuesday Matthew MacKay said his department has just five maintenance staff to look after 1,600 housing units, most of them for seniors. That's one maintenance person for every 320 units. 

"Obviously five people are not enough," MacKay told MLAs, "and I'm not defending it in any way, because the buildings that we own need desperate work."

Opposition MLA Karla Bernard came equipped with a list of some of the jobs left undone.

"They're putting Band-Aids on years of neglect from this government and [the government] before," she said. 

"I've heard of air filters not being changed in 20 years; tubs leaking into the apartment below; seniors waiting to have safety bars installed in the bathroom; light switches not working."

Bernard said the lack of maintenance and repairs is "actively putting [seniors'] health at risk."

MacKay did not put a number on how many staff his department plans to hire, telling reporters "that's being worked out." 

But he said "we want to have plumbers, electricians, carpenters, basically a full team in the [P.E.I.] Housing Corp., not only to look after our buildings as a whole but also help us with our future development projects."

The King government has promised to build or buy 465 more public housing units over the next five years.

"One of the first things I noticed when I came into this role as minister is we've got a significant staff shortage in the department looking after housing and we need more," MacKay said.

He said some work, including major repairs, is contracted out but said the existing maintenance budget of $1.2 million per year is far too small, and "the biggest problem" when looking at the current condition of the province's housing stock.

Government is planning to triple the maintenance budget next year, but it's not clear whether that funding level will be maintained beyond 2023.

At one point Bernard said that when tenants in government housing had called the province to report maintenance or safety issues they had been told "to contact their MLA, that we are the only ones who can change things."