We need better development patterns. Many suburban and strip mall style developments end up costing more to maintain, service and repair than they bring in with taxes. Being able to survive without owning a car by walking, biking or transit would also help a lot. People really shrug away the costs of car ownership (and the costs of maintaining all that infrastructure and parking lots).
Yeah, the total direct monetary cost of maintaining low-density car-dependant cities is extremely high: road construction & maintenance, plumbing and electrical, parking lots taking valuable space that could be used for housing or workplaces, insurance for personal and commercial vehicles, maintenance and upkeep, gas, and probably many more I've missed.
And on top of all of that, the externalized monetary costs are also high: medical costs from all the deaths or injuries due to collisions (the stats are honestly depressing), medical costs due to less physical activity across the population, environmental damage, time wasted due to traffic, slower delivery times for long-haul trucks, and probably many more I've missed.
And on top of all of THAT the intangible costs are also high: isolation from the people and communities directly around you, less customers for small businesses that rely on foot traffic and have no parking space, increasing polarization between urban/suburban/rural populations, and probably many more I've missed.
Side note for the people that still really need cars in their lives (workers in rural areas, people living in suburbs, etc.), pushing for better transit and city planning will directly benefit you. If less people have cars: gas prices will be lower (supply and demand), road construction and upkeep will be cheaper, traffic will be better for you directly, and more. I always fear that pro-transit, pro-urban planning folks (me included) come off as dismissive. There are definitely people who will still need cars in their lives. The goal is to catch the many millions of people who could probably replace their car usage if transit systems and cities were built better.
People will always do what is easiest/best for them, we need to keep pushing towards systems that make sense.
Housing authorities just need to lower housing prices. The model already exists there's just a lot of money fighting it:
Build large 5-6 story buildings with dozens or hundreds of units in areas where prices are too high. These buildings should be mixed use on the first floor with no car parking.
Sell or rent them at well below market rates to people that currently do not own homes anywhere under the condition they only sell under those conditions as well
Watch the market prices fall.
There's currently enough housing in most places there just needs to be a needle applying downward pressure.
Step 0 is to reinvent Canada in such that steps 1,2,3 are not destined to fail and cause career suicide to the politician that proposes them
How do you figure there is enough housing?
CMHC thinks we need 3.5 million more units by 2030 (bringing us from from a projected 19M to 22.5M) https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-research/research-reports/accelerate-supply/housing-shortages-canada-solving-affordability-crisis
I should add: 1b. Don't include parking, include commercial rental space on the bottom floor - parking creates sprawl.
Hey, NDP.
I'm not sure how you're doing, hope all is well with you. I heard you were working on pharmacare or somesuch. That's cool, that's cool
You know, I was thinking, we need a bit more than that, you know? We have healthcare issues, environment issues, housing issues, cost-of-living issues. And it sounds like we would really benefit from some bold transformational political vision, here, you know? Someone to say we are going to do A,B,C,D to fix these things, you know, like in the old days, when Tommy Douglas was putting up concrete visions for government creating crown corporations to tackle specific problems?
And I think you might be the right party to bring stuff up? Maybe get the provincial NDPs to all to talk to each other, and coordinate with the national party a coherent strategy or something?
Something to inspire us?
I dunno, you're the pro, maybe I'm overstepping. Maybe pharmacare is as much as we can really do at this point.
Anyway, just checking in.
All the best,
Some guy.
It is atrocious that the federal liberals are not addressing these issues. We will continue to review our support for them on a recurring basis. Enough is enough. Canadians need help. We will continue to review our support for the federal liberals on a recurring basis.
How can the federal liberals allow this to happen to Canadians??? We will continue to review our support with the liberal government on a recurring basis.
All best the best Canadians,
Singh
Ps Get fucked Canadians.
I think we have too many people here in Canada who think any kind of regulation infringes on freedom as well as magically makes it so the free market doesn’t make everything cheap for everyone so we probably won’t get this any time soon.
Thank god I don’t rent anymore.
The housing market is not exactly a free market at the moment anyway
The bad actors of the housing market would have to give up a LOT of their capital at this point to fix the issues we have with it.
I have little faith that that’s likely to ever happen.
The capital would flow out pretty quickly if something more compelling came along.
We saw exactly that watching our friends to the south in 2006 when "Web 2.0" started attracting investor interest towards tech, prompting the now-famous housing crash (not to be confused with the securities crash of 2008).
Trouble in Canada is that we're so busy going to university in a quest to attain degrees to maintain our "most educated nation in the world" status that we forget to actually do anything.
Yeah but that doesn’t solve the corporate oligarchy problem in my opinion.
what's needed for a national housing movement
Houses. All across the nation. Freely available to those who need them.
Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows Canada has ramped up construction in recent years,
That looks like a good start on the surface, but how many of those are 2000+ sq foot McMansions, versus more affordable <1000sq foot homes?
A government with balls....end of article.
The people with "balls" are probably sitting at home playing with them since most of them didnt get elected.
I'm not sure if I'm an outlier, but I think most politicians run for the power, influence, top 1% income and the opportunity it opens up for them. The Canadian Housing Minister probably spends more time thinking about what socks to wear for the day more than housing affordability.
What's needed for a national housing movement? The provinces giving up control of housing. Otherwise it will always be a provincial matter, requiring provincial movements.
Apparently, all that's need is a strong First Nations group that can blow past NIMBYism.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/senakw-squamish-first-nation-vancouver-rental-housing-development
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