It shouldn’t surprise you to know that housing is at a crisis in not just the 905, but all of Ontario. In fact, across Canada, housing prices and supply are in crisis mode. Our supply of housing in whatever form you wish to choose, whether it’s a detached house, a condo or rental isn’t keeping up with the population. We have just not built enough to keep up our numbers. We do not have enough places to live, is what it comes down to basically.
Which is what Bill 23 was supposed to help solve. Premier Doug Ford and Minister Steve Clark were going to unleash the power of the development industry by allowing them to do what they do best. Build homes. According to the Ontario PC government, the biggest impediment to doing that was the red tape and dastardly municipal governments around the province that held back the honest hard working developers.
So with that Bill 23 was enacted, the Greenbelt was carved up and we are all now living in a housing development paradise. Well not quite. This week, TVO published an opinion piece wondering what Plan B was for the province’s housing plans? According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation new housing starts were down 31% in Ontario, in Toronto down 51% and only a 7% bump up in Hamilton. In essense our housing plans are not working and we are not building enough to keep up with demand. We need to build 1.5 million new homes over the next ten years so when is that going to happen? Why are we not building like crazy at the moment?
In our second half of the episode, we flash back a few episodes to our chat with former Ontario Liberal candidate Kate Graham, who was a signatory to a now infamous letter asking Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner to run for the top job in the Liberal party. Well Mike finally got back to everyone, and it’s a no. So what does that mean for the Ontario Liberal Party? Was it a good plan to ask Mike? And what does the future of the Ontario Liberals look like? In that regard what does the future of the opposition in Queen’s Park look like for the next four years? Should Marit Stiles and the NDP be worried? Should Doug Ford?
Plan A for Housing is Failing in Ontario. What’s Plan B? – TVO Today
Mike Schreiner’s Response to the Ontario Liberal Letter
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Nicholas Paul: sound editing.
The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!