Quote:
Originally Posted by GenWhy?
I think the approaches by the federal CPC mentioned in that bit on their website is vastly different than what is in the provincial NDPs Housing Act. The Province isn't:
1) threatening to fire various levels of planning staff in cities (the fire the gatekeepers part)
2) the don't have a snitch line
3) they're being less confrontational and more pragmatic by allowing cities to re-examine their OCPs on their own and present to the Province at a later date (respecting local voices, voters, representatives, and jurisdiction).
4) withholding infrastructure spending if starts are under 15% each year, most of which was needed over 10 years ago, like transit. 2021 had roughly the same starts as 2022 and the way financing is going it ain't looking so hot. Do the feds withhold infrastructure funding due to economic realities? Does this delay say SkyTrain to the North Shore which was needed decades ago because we aren't building enough housing now?
5) they have not indicated they will play favorites with infrastructure spending like the CPC has. If a city has been begging the feds for transit money for 15 years and their growth is stalling due to high levels of congestion... do you keep withholding their funding?
I'd rather see the feds push all provinces to do what BC is doing.
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Yes, the Tory "plan" is full of childish political rhetoric that they couldn't, or wouldn't, do if they won. Welcome to politics. But the end message is the same as the BC NDP, essentially: We know better than those democratically elected municipal politicians we think are beholden to NIMBYs". Silly, when of course municipal politicians are beholden to those who elected them, just as provincial and federal politicians are. It is a troubling attitude when municipal politics are the most grassroots, with better access to elected representatives than senior levels of gov't.
Of course, the other silly part of the BC NDP and Tory strategy is illustrated by this headline today (yes I know it is Toronto but it is the same everywhere):
Toronto-area home building shifts into low gear as developers pause or cancel projects
SHANE DINGMAN REAL ESTATE REPORTER
TORONTO
PUBLISHED 10 HOURS AGO
Toronto-area homebuilders say a perfect storm of factors has more real estate developers pausing or cancelling new projects, even as the province touts new plans to achieve its ambitious goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031.
“If you’re a builder and you have a building permit, that doesn’t say you have to build,” said Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). “We have builders that have land, they could build, but they are not going to cut prices to hit their market. They can sit back on the land and wait until things settle down and become a little more predictable.”
That mirrors sentiments measured by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA), which surveys homebuilders to produce a quarterly report called the Housing Marketing Index (HMI). On Aug. 9, the CHBA’s second quarter HMI report found 22 per cent of builders were cancelling construction plans, while 67 per cent said they were building fewer units.
Experts close to the industry say the confluence of rising costs and demand weakened by successive interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada has knocked the starch out of the industry...
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real...pers-pause-or/
Developers are businesses. They can't just be ordered to build if they don't see a decent return on the project.
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