Op-Eds
Canada’s housing problem is supply, and the solution is local, not federal - Globe and Mail Op-Ed
From the Finance Minister to the Bank of Canada to Canada’s big-bank executives, everyone is talking about surging house prices in Vancouver and Toronto. What can federal policy makers do about it? Unfortunately, not much – because the core problem is a lack of low-cost, single-family homes in those cities, driven in part by local and provincial government policies.
What are the facts? Nationally, house prices have increased by 67 per cent since 1990 and by 19 per cent since 2006. However, interest rates have decreased during this period. The conventional five-year mortgage rate fell from nearly 13 per cent in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2006 and is now below 4 per cent. This has left the average consumer with…
The Ontario government announced recently that it will give cities the power to require home builders to set aside housing in new developments for low-income families. Municipal politicians might like the plan, but it will be costly for home buyers and is not the most effective way to give low-income families good housing.
The province’s plan is called inclusionary zoning. Inclusionary zoning is about changing the way social housing is built in our cities. Currently, the City of Toronto owns 62 per cent of government-subsidized housing. Inclusionary zoning would put more of the burden of building low-income housing on private developers instead.
Why do governments support such a change?
First,…
How many people thought a Powerball ticket was the way to get rich quick? Governments across the country – and even the Bank of Canada, albeit with a caution that there will be a lag between decisions and actual spending – seem to be hoping that infrastructure spending will get Canada quickly out of the economic doldrums. But the old, boring ways of getting rich – diligent planning and smart asset allocation – apply to infrastructure, too.
Canada needs infrastructure. Governments have been underestimating the economic benefits of public transit, for example. Good transit connects people to jobs that better match their skills. That makes business and workers better off. Congestion and a lack of infrastructure limit these…
By Daniel Schwanen and Aaron Jacobs
Visitors to Manitoba, in the heart of Canada, are lucky to experience the province's unique and intimate blend of nature and industry, culture and industry, learning and relaxation. And they will also, quite uniquely, encounter frequent, large and colourful advertisement alongside roads, urging consumers to recycle their beverage containers. They are everywhere.
Manitoba used to be a noticeable laggard in the collection rate for these containers. No more. Progress in the past five years alone has been swift, pulling rates within close reach of those in other provinces. There is every reason to believe that this upward swing will continue.
While the advertising no doubt helps…
By Benjamin Dachis
Love ’em or hate ’em, carpool lanes on Toronto highways look here to stay – having gained the endorsement of the Premier of Ontario. Tolling these carpool lanes is the way to go.
The Pan Am Games set the stage. The province installed 235 kilometres of temporary carpool lanes across the Greater Toronto Area. The province required that vehicles have three occupants to access them during July. For most of August, vehicles must have two occupants to access the lanes.
The Pan Am lanes were always billed as temporary. But the province has had long-standing plans to build carpool lanes across the region. The province has permanent carpool lanes on highways in Mississauga, Halton Region and north Toronto…
