Discussion on housing must be followed by action

This summer, Statistics Canada announced that Canada’s population had passed 40 million. As of July 1, Canada was estimated to have grown by 2.9 per cent in the last year, the highest population growth rate recorded for a 12-month period since the late 1950s. Chances are, many GTA residents missed this news amidst the many discussions in the media about how and where to accommodate additional housing in the region. The fact is, we need to have those discussions and quickly, because the need for homes of all kinds is only going to get more acute.

Undersupply

Mostly thanks to immigration, Canada is the fastest-growing country in the G7 and among the 20 fastest-growing countries in the world. These are reasons to celebrate, given our aging population and declining birth rates. New Canadians help make our economy more competitive and our society more dynamic. But there is no denying that welcoming 1.5 million newcomers by 2025 will present a housing challenge. Canada has the lowest number of housing units per 1,000 residents of any G7 country. Major markets, such as the GTA, have been undersupplied for decades.

Given the GTA’s housing crisis, it is vital that we have open-minded discussions to find answers to the questions that came up in the public discourse this summer: Do we further intensify in our cities with infill, midrise and highrise housing, or do we expand municipal borders to add more land so we can build more single-family homes? How do we encourage more rental housing to be built? Is there enough land? Do we need to redevelop every unused strip mall, parking lot and car dealership in the city?

Yes to housing of all kinds

We must not get mired in debate. We need to say yes to housing of all kinds – to rent or own, high or lowrise, infill, in new suburbs at the edges of newly expanded municipal boundaries, and even on reclaimed parking lots – and then we need to move on to action. It takes 10 to 11 years to complete a housing project in the GTA, which means that the housing we are talking about today will be added in the mid-2030s at the earliest, even as the need increases every year.

We are fortunate to live in a growing region, a place where new Canadians and young Canadians want to live and contribute their talents. We owe it to them and to ourselves to seize every opportunity to add more housing so we can all find the homes we need.