VAUGHAN, Ont. - Liberal Leader Mark Carney says his government would double Canada’s rate of residential housing construction over the next decade to nearly 500,000 new homes per year.
The fact that they’re creating a crown corporation to build homes on public and private land is huge. This includes prefab and modular homes too. They’re even committing to using Canadian lumber.
We cannot contunue to rely on capitulating to and deregulating private developers and expecting them to act in any way other than own self-interest. They have no incentive to bring down the cost of homes. It is now crystal clear that the neo-liberal solution does not work.
A crown corporation that exists to create housing rather than maximize shareholder value is a massive step in the right direction. Frankly, I’m surprised Carney is doing this but happy about it all the same.
I expect Carney to get pushback from Doug Ford who is firmly in the pocket of private real estate investors.
We cannot contunue to rely on capitulating to and deregulating private developers and expecting them to act in any way other than own self-interest. They have no incentive to bring down the cost of homes. It is now crystal clear that the neo-liberal solution does not work.
I’m hoping to see more details about how production will be split. The article/release describes the new organization as both overseeing and building. I really want the emphasis to be on building, since that will allow them to push down sale or rental costs of the final product. .
There is no significant amount of federal public land sitting unused where people want to live. Only 4% of the total land in the provinces are federally owned, and most of that is parks and military bases.
The provinces themselves have some public land, but even most of that isn’t in or near cities where people want to live. They could build entirely new cities from scratch in slightly less desirable locations, but that’s about it.
The cost to buy private land to do this would be impossibly expensive.
It’s a great concept, but it simply doesn’t work in reality.
The feds own a lot of land in downtown Ottawa. Tunney’s Pasture alone is huge. I’m not sure that’s true elsewhere. Does Thunder Bay have a sizeable block of federally owned land, for example?
I mean, even in Ottawa is there actually enough federal land for that to matter? And if it’s not enough there, there definitely isn’t enough in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, etc.
There’s enough in Ottawa for sure. Remember the NCC is also a Federal Commission not Provincial nor Municipal. But also there is a lot of federal agencies present in Ottawa (because it is the Capital) looking to move out of their current facilities/office space.
I understand it is highly location specific. There’s a significant impact in Ottawa and, because I am speaking as someone from Ottawa, I made a comment about it. Considering that Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Victory, etc. are not the Federal Capital, this particular policy would not affect those cities as much or at all, depending. Again, it having a positive impact in once city but not everywhere while at the same time there being no negative effect should not mean the policy should not be looked at. It’s good for Ottawa, at least, and not bad for anyone? So what’s the problem with that?
The fact that they’re creating a crown corporation to build homes on public and private land is huge. This includes prefab and modular homes too. They’re even committing to using Canadian lumber.
We cannot contunue to rely on capitulating to and deregulating private developers and expecting them to act in any way other than own self-interest. They have no incentive to bring down the cost of homes. It is now crystal clear that the neo-liberal solution does not work.
A crown corporation that exists to create housing rather than maximize shareholder value is a massive step in the right direction. Frankly, I’m surprised Carney is doing this but happy about it all the same.
I expect Carney to get pushback from Doug Ford who is firmly in the pocket of private real estate investors.
I’m hoping to see more details about how production will be split. The article/release describes the new organization as both overseeing and building. I really want the emphasis to be on building, since that will allow them to push down sale or rental costs of the final product. .
There is no significant amount of federal public land sitting unused where people want to live. Only 4% of the total land in the provinces are federally owned, and most of that is parks and military bases.
The provinces themselves have some public land, but even most of that isn’t in or near cities where people want to live. They could build entirely new cities from scratch in slightly less desirable locations, but that’s about it.
The cost to buy private land to do this would be impossibly expensive.
It’s a great concept, but it simply doesn’t work in reality.
Redeveloping public owned lands in cities should be a start. I’ve been to community meetings to discuss redeveloping federal land in Ottawa.
Ottawa has a significant amount of federal land. Transforming unused federal office space to mixed used residential will be a game changer.
There is a crown corp that now owns public federal land and is either redeveloping for mixed use or for tourism:
https://www.clc-sic.ca/
They also own the CN Tower. Beefing this up would be great.
The feds own a lot of land in downtown Ottawa. Tunney’s Pasture alone is huge. I’m not sure that’s true elsewhere. Does Thunder Bay have a sizeable block of federally owned land, for example?
I don’t know. You’d have to look that up.
I’m from Ottawa, not Thunder Bay so I cannot answer that question.
I mean, even in Ottawa is there actually enough federal land for that to matter? And if it’s not enough there, there definitely isn’t enough in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, etc.
There’s enough in Ottawa for sure. Remember the NCC is also a Federal Commission not Provincial nor Municipal. But also there is a lot of federal agencies present in Ottawa (because it is the Capital) looking to move out of their current facilities/office space.
I understand it is highly location specific. There’s a significant impact in Ottawa and, because I am speaking as someone from Ottawa, I made a comment about it. Considering that Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Victory, etc. are not the Federal Capital, this particular policy would not affect those cities as much or at all, depending. Again, it having a positive impact in once city but not everywhere while at the same time there being no negative effect should not mean the policy should not be looked at. It’s good for Ottawa, at least, and not bad for anyone? So what’s the problem with that?
In Ontario it is all north of Lake Huron, too.