My Two Cents

Maybe you've decided already.  Maybe you're on the fence.

Housing has become a hot topic in this year's Federal Election and all of the parties have announced a plan to tackle affordability of housing in Canada.  

At the end of the day, we need more supply.  Full stop.  All of the incentives and programs to making housing more affordable or decrease demand will only temporarily relieve an increase in prices or affordability in certain pockets of the country.  

Canada has very aggressive immigration policies, which we need and should maintain.  Canada has a goal of welcoming 400,000 new Canadians every year.  That's the equivalent of adding the population of the City of Oshawa to Canada every year.  

If we're not building enough homes of all shapes and sizes, the lack of supply will cause prices to rise. It's not foreign buyers or wages or government loans.  It's a critical lack of supply where people want to live.  

We seem to be pretty good at building condos in Toronto, but COVID has accelerated the spread of people out to smaller towns as they seek out bigger properties and more space.  Up until recently, supply has only been a big city problem.  It's at least briefly a problem all over Canada, which is why this is now an election issue.  

I think it's a problem that is going to dissipate in smaller towns, but I'm glad that it's at least an issue that is getting national attention so we can start to plan and build more effectively.  

Each of the major parties have a plan to build more supply, but saying they're going to build a certain number of housing units, is much easier said than done.  Is it even possible for the government to build the promised number of houses?  Take into account the infrastructure, land, politics and red tape that goes into housing development and then decide what is a campaign promise and what is the reality.