Nobody complains about supply? News to me. Trudeau has been boasting about how his sizeable immigration increases will solve the housing crisis for months now with a greater supply of workers to address the “labour shortage”. The “labour shortage” being the biggest buzzword to complain about lack of supply. Meanwhile construction has been basically stagnant and even backsliding slightly according to statscan data while he has basically given a big shot of adrenaline to demand.
Whereas a five year old could understand, if we literally just stopped all immigration tomorrow (this would have extremely bad consequences like causing an immediate recession and huge unemployment but hypothetically) housing prices would crater because Canadians don’t reproduce at anything close to replacement. But people go oh no no, the REAL solution to the problem is the thing causing the problem.
Immigration I accept is a lesser evil to the alternative, but it’s certainly not the solution to the housing crisis. It’s just not.
The federal government is (mostly) inconsequential on housing supply. Trudeau knows this and so has to do all kinds of other song and dances to distract.
If we have a labor problem let’s import construction workers, fix zoning, build a large housing fund and construction department and mobilize it. Actually work the problem on a provincial and municipal level.
As opposed to constantly kvetching about supply and trying to murder it (see: foreign buyers bans, airbnb bans and now the ever popular immigration stoppages). It’s all whack-a-mole band aids that are clearly not working.
Solve the actual problem, and that’s supply, supply and supply.
Whereas a five year old could understand, if we literally just stopped all immigration tomorrow (this would have extremely bad consequences like causing an immediate recession and huge unemployment but hypothetically) housing prices would crater because Canadians don’t reproduce at anything close to replacement. But people go oh no no, the REAL solution to the problem is the thing causing the problem.
Immigration I accept is a lesser evil to the alternative, but it’s certainly not the solution to the housing crisis. It’s just not.