<story><title>The U.S. housing market vs. the Canadian housing market</title><url>https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2023/09/the-u-s-housing-market-vs-the-canadian-housing-market/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joenot443</author><text>This is probably the most pressing topic in Canadian politics at the moment. Cost of housing, both to buy and to rent, has scaled greatly out of pace with Canadian salaries. Our PM and his cabinet recently went on a retreat with the intention of creating an action plan on how to get us pointed in the right direction. They came back empty handed. [1]&lt;p&gt;Truthfully I don&amp;#x27;t think this is an issue the federal government is in a position to solve any time soon. The long and short is that our population has grown faster than our supply of housing, COVID being an unfortunately timed disruption which further strained that supply. Nothing was built for almost a year, but the population continued to grow.&lt;p&gt;If I had a singular policy suggestion, after having talked to some friends in the industry, it would be to pump federal money into expediting site plan approvals and environmental assessments done at a county or municipal level. Some of these offices have tiny rosters who end up being the bottlenecks for enormous projects which otherwise would be breaking ground. Environmental assessments are notoriously time-consuming and particular in Canada, something we&amp;#x27;re largely very proud of. That said, I believe if there were ever a time for Canadians to be okay with cutting corners if it meant getting more of us into homes, I think it would be now. From my understanding, there are many housing projects in Ontario for which construction could begin next week, if not for the Sisyphean approval processes.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s an example of a site plan approval process for a town in Ontario[2] - just imagine all the points in which that chain of communication can get gummed up and projects can sit idle. We&amp;#x27;re used to steps like this taking a couple weeks in tech, but in the land development industry things move s l o w.&lt;p&gt;Canadians often take pride in our ability to do things the way they&amp;#x27;re meant to be done and to follow the rules as presented, even when they might not make sense in the moment. I think occasionally our love of process can be our downfall.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.ph&amp;#x2F;CZE3y&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.ph&amp;#x2F;CZE3y&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.middlesexcentre.on.ca&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021-07&amp;#x2F;Middlesex%20Centre%20Planning%20Guides%20-%20Site%20Plan%20Approval.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.middlesexcentre.on.ca&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021-0...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>treespace8</author><text>At many levels Canada seems to be choking on it&amp;#x27;s own bureaucracy. We have a complete lack of intra provincial trade, including many intra provincial barriers for experts. Does Saskatchewan with a population of 1 million need its own licensing board for Psychologists?  Why Can&amp;#x27;t I buy an Ontario wine in Alberta?</text></comment>
<story><title>The U.S. housing market vs. the Canadian housing market</title><url>https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2023/09/the-u-s-housing-market-vs-the-canadian-housing-market/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joenot443</author><text>This is probably the most pressing topic in Canadian politics at the moment. Cost of housing, both to buy and to rent, has scaled greatly out of pace with Canadian salaries. Our PM and his cabinet recently went on a retreat with the intention of creating an action plan on how to get us pointed in the right direction. They came back empty handed. [1]&lt;p&gt;Truthfully I don&amp;#x27;t think this is an issue the federal government is in a position to solve any time soon. The long and short is that our population has grown faster than our supply of housing, COVID being an unfortunately timed disruption which further strained that supply. Nothing was built for almost a year, but the population continued to grow.&lt;p&gt;If I had a singular policy suggestion, after having talked to some friends in the industry, it would be to pump federal money into expediting site plan approvals and environmental assessments done at a county or municipal level. Some of these offices have tiny rosters who end up being the bottlenecks for enormous projects which otherwise would be breaking ground. Environmental assessments are notoriously time-consuming and particular in Canada, something we&amp;#x27;re largely very proud of. That said, I believe if there were ever a time for Canadians to be okay with cutting corners if it meant getting more of us into homes, I think it would be now. From my understanding, there are many housing projects in Ontario for which construction could begin next week, if not for the Sisyphean approval processes.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s an example of a site plan approval process for a town in Ontario[2] - just imagine all the points in which that chain of communication can get gummed up and projects can sit idle. We&amp;#x27;re used to steps like this taking a couple weeks in tech, but in the land development industry things move s l o w.&lt;p&gt;Canadians often take pride in our ability to do things the way they&amp;#x27;re meant to be done and to follow the rules as presented, even when they might not make sense in the moment. I think occasionally our love of process can be our downfall.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.ph&amp;#x2F;CZE3y&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.ph&amp;#x2F;CZE3y&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.middlesexcentre.on.ca&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021-07&amp;#x2F;Middlesex%20Centre%20Planning%20Guides%20-%20Site%20Plan%20Approval.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.middlesexcentre.on.ca&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021-0...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>VHRanger</author><text>I really don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s that hard to work it at the federal level.&lt;p&gt;The issue is at the municipal level (mainly), and the provincial level (less so).&lt;p&gt;Look at what California has been doing in the last 2 years. You force constraints on zoning regulations down on the lower level entities. You force permitting time limits and acceptance rates. You force a minimum level of multifamily lots per population.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s really really really not as hard as it&amp;#x27;s presented. It&amp;#x27;s just in political gridlock.</text></comment>