Canada needs an additional 3.5 million housing units to address its housing shortage. Governments and industry are learning how to do that without sacrificing the tree canopy that keeps streets cool, absorbs floodwater and cleans the air.
British Columbia's election campaign enters its final day in what is viewed as a too-close-to-call contest where David Eby's New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives led by John Rustad debated big issues of housing, health care, affordability and the overdose crisis, but also tangled over plastic straws and a billionaire’s billboards.
David Eby's New Democrats say the housing market on its own will not deliver the homes people need, while B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says government is part of the problem and B.C. needs to "unleash" the potential of the private sector.
But perhaps the worst housing idea Rustad has shared is his pledge to create a new tax deduction of up to $3,000 per month for mortgage and rent payments that would cost the provincial treasury $3.5 billion in foregone revenue
Canadians, and especially younger ones, are dead tired of dealing with a housing market that continues to punish renters and prospective buyers while rewarding older homeowners with a seemingly endless bounty of price appreciation and untaxed capital gains.
The federal government has added 56 properties to a new public lands bank of locations that are suitable for long-term leases so developers can build housing, a move the Housing Minister says will help boost the supply of homes Canadians can afford.
As Canada’s premiers reckoned with housing, health care and their contentious relationship with Ottawa during meetings last week in Halifax, many of them remained consumed by climate change-related natural disasters that have only escalated since they returned home.
In a dramatic Tuesday council meeting, four ABC party councillors voted to approve an amendment that reverses city rules from 2020 prohibiting new buildings from using natural gas for heating and hot water.
More cities are considering similar policies as climate change continues to make extreme heat more common. Hamilton is set to put in place a similar bylaw this summer; View Royal on Vancouver Island is also waiting to hear back from staff; and the city of Toronto was instructed to study and report its findings on maximum temperature requirements last summer.
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