Could the housing shortage be our friend?
Apr 9, 2024
Canada’s shortage of housing (I can’t even utter the word “affordable” – that’s a bad joke) is being exacerbated by high interest rates and the record-breaking immigration numbers. Everyone needs a place to live and if you have come to Canada recently, you will have been met by a severe shortage of homes to buy or rent. The impact of those severe shortages of rental units has prompted politicians, most notably the federal Liberals who are watching their popularity plummet in this crisis, to try and promote construction of new housing units with financial incentives and other tricks. It won’t work. They are hammering us with high interest rates to slow the economy and drive up unemployment.
All levels of government in Canada had easy and free access to StatsCan data that could have predicted the current housing shortage, as well as the current labour shortage. Even if the Liberals could get these new housing projects organized, there are not enough people available who know how to build houses. There is a severe shortage of skilled labour, not just across Canada but in many countries. Late last week, I heard an interview with Dave McKay the CEO of the Royal Bank and he covered this predicament in detail. It’s daunting but I can see a possible solution for us.
The boat business needs people and we are really struggling to attract them. My idea is to work with local municipalities across cottage country to find ways to allow new home construction without gouging builders on fees and land charges. Selective permitting can direct builders to affordable homes. Borrowing an inspired idea from Limestone Boats, work with the local schools and colleges to help attract and train the labour needed to build the houses. In these rural areas, there’s little money for urban infrastructure, so they will need sufficient land for wells and septic fields but we have done that for decades. My point is to find ways to build homes for young families.
Buying a first home in Toronto (or almost anywhere in the GTA) is beyond the means of any young person earning what our marinas are able to pay. Luckily, there is no shortage of land across Canada outside of the major urban centres. And frankly, we want young people living in cottage country, as near as possible to our marinas and tourism-based businesses.
I’m sure some of you have already formed these local political alliances and I’d love to know more about what you are doing, but my idea here, inspired by all the points Dave McKay covered, is to find ways to give young people what they want; a wage that can get them a home where they can have a family and a nice life.
That should not be impossible in a country as big and rich as Canada. Maybe there is a way that the housing shortage can be our friend.
Andy Adams – Editor (and trouble-maker)
