this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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New housing minister says closing door on newcomers is no solution to housing crunch | CBC News (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You know what is a solution to the crunch? Spending a shit-ton of money--that you get by taxing our ever-growing billionaire class--on building public housing (and no, shovelling money at said billionaire developers who use it to build more sprawl doesn't count)

Are you going to do that? No? Then shut the fuck up about immigration.

I'm a lefty--like, card-carrying--and I'm getting really tired of identity politics being used to distract from wealth inequality. And to be fair, it's not like the "Stop the woke!" crowd doesn't do the same goddamn thing.

[–] Worstdriver 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What we need... is large scale tract housing. Either that or a revival of the Homesteading Act, but limited to North of the 58th parallel.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

rebuild ocean falls

Nah. Towers. A cluster of mixed-use around a transit stop. Ensure the subway stop is poured with the foundation of the towers so it's far cheaper. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Roll up a swathe of bungalows ans use the space for 50x as many people, giving some extra back for the parkland.

And just don't stop. Go north and make actual towns out of the thawing hamlets up there. Spread out the pods a bit.

[–] jimmyjoners -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Simple math... perhaps not his strong suit?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not as simple as basic math. There are problems with the age demographics of our country. We need more young people, If we don't bring young people in, the economy will not be able to support the massive number of old people who are about to or have just retired.

We're struggling to staff the businesses and services we have today.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We’re struggling to staff the businesses and services we have today.

Then why are wages so low?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Because capital is greedy? The economy is growing every year, productivity is growing every year. The fact that wages are not says bad things about employers, not the workers.

[–] jimmyjoners 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh I'm aware of all that. But you need to deal with housing first. Given how serious the need is they should be making huge moves on housing. And yet...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The problem is that "solving" this problem would actually cause the majority of Canadians to lose massive amounts of money (even if they should never have earned that money in the first place) which would upset them and cause them to vote for another party.

It's impossible to have affordable houses for people who want to buy, and simultaneously maintain the existing values of current owners.

Given that around 65% of residential properties in Canada are lived in by their owners, that means around 65% of Canadians would lose massive amounts of their home value. To get Victoria or Vancouver or Toronto to "affordable" by the official definition, it would require existing home prices to drop by somewhere between 70-90%