Housing might be the top political issue in Canada these days. More than wildfires, climate change or even food prices. Politicians are unanimous on the need for action and divided as to what the action should look like.
Housing prices have almost doubled in eight years of Liberal rule, from $454,976 to $729,000. Average mortgage payments have more than doubled, from $1,418 to $3,357, while average rents have doubled from $973 to $1861 for a one-bedroom apartment. Rising interest rates have experts warning about the potential for massive mortgage defaults.
The government says it is not to blame, that the timing is coincidental. In fairness, they aren’t the only culprits, but they do share a large part of the responsibility. Immigration has doubled in recent years while housing construction has remained basically static. High demand, coupled with low supply, pushes prices up for buyers and renters.
I own my home and paid off my mortgage more than a decade ago. But I am not without interest in the topic. Fifteen years ago I ghost-wrote a book on affordable housing in Canada.
You could say that makes me somewhat of an expert. I didn’t agree with all the contents of the book, but, in order to disagree, I had to do the research. In the end of course, the author’s wishes were what got published, but the experience left me with an ongoing interest in housing.
This past week I realized just how deeply the crisis is impacting the country. There was a news story about how some criminal offenders, those serving time in jail and prison, were saying they would prefer to remain incarcerated. Their feeling is, it is better to stay where you are, to accept all the restrictions on freedom that come with being in jail, than to try to find a place to live in Canada. That should be a sobering thought for our politicians. Or anyone who cares about the state of our society.
There is no quick fix for Canada’s housing problems. But there is also no reason our leaders can’t come up with a workable plan. Efforts in recent years have seemed to me to be half-hearted, words with no real action.
When people would rather be in jail than try to find a place to live, something is seriously wrong with your society. The time for change is now.
random thoughts from lorne 
It seems obvious to me that a government that wants to unilaterally add a million immigrants and almost a million foreign students a year to a country with an extreme housing shortage should, and must, be responsible for providing housing for those additional people. The government used to accept this responsibility. After WWII, the government built housing for the veterans returning from the war. The government continued to take responsibility for building coop housing into the 1980s and then suddenly vacated the responsibility to the private sector.
I think the government should only be allowed to add immigrants, foreign students, or temporary workers when they have already built the housing these people require. Most of the housing could be built in or near either Toronto or Vancouver, with the remainder spread across the provinces where people were particularly needed. Newcomers could be assigned housing by lottery, and if necessary, trade with others who were willing. Newcomers could receive mortgages priced such that they paid only 30% of their incomes, scaled up as their wages increased, as in Singapore.
And let us not forget that this policy of providing housing should be made retroactive. Much housing is required for the millions of immigrants already arrived, already struggling to find affordable housing, making it hard for many Canadians also to find affordable housing.
It’s an interesting problem. Prime Minister Trudeau is something of a spendthrift. He has increased Canada’s deficits and national debt exponentially. It’s only on housing that he is adamant as a cheapskate, offering only repetitively empty promises. One wonders if there is not some financial reward awaiting him from the developers he has enriched over his years in power? Even Lester Pearson received a big payoff, it is reputed, after he retired. And Brian Mulroney, for approving a German arms deal and hiding the cash for years until he was allowed to retroactively declared it without penalty except taxes owed by Revenue Canada. Often our seemingly impeccable political leaders eventually turn out to have had feet of clay all along though we didn’t imagine it at the time.
That seems like common sense. Maybe that is why the government is so reluctant to do anything.