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1. Ford must back up housing rhetoric with concrete policies

   Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, January 3, 2019 As a new year approaches, the Ford government recently vowed to tackle housing affordability by growing the housing supply and asking the public for input on how to reduce regulatory barriers to homebuilding. As ...

2. City of Vancouver (finally) acknowledges importance of housing supply

   The City of Vancouver recently unveiled its new 10-year housing strategy. Chief among its commitments is to see 72,000 new homes in the city by 2028, including an important boost in the rental stock, which has suffered from vacancy rates ...

3. Vancouver plan to boost housing supply ignores city hall red tape

   The City of Vancouver recently announced a plan to enable the construction of 72,000 new housing units in over the next 10 years. It’s encouraging to hear city hall pivot away from measures targeting housing demand—such as its tax on ...

4. It takes three times longer to obtain building permits in Vancouver than in Burnaby

   The Fraser Institute’s latest study spotlights the difficulties homebuilders face at city halls across B.C.’s Lower Mainland. The study findings reinforce a recurring theme from almost three years of tracking this issue—there are huge ...

5. Vancouver’s tax on vacant homes misses the point—we need to build more homes

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province, November 25, 2016 Vancouver City Council recently approved an annual one per cent tax on the value of vacant homes, ostensibly to encourage their owners to rent them out and, in theory, boost the city’s rental housing ...

6. Red tape in Calgary stifling housing supply as home prices soar

   Average house prices up almost 140 per cent in Calgary and more than 160 per cent in Edmonton. ...

7. Governments should care what Ontario homebuilders think about regulation

   Appeared in the Globe and Mail, October 6, 2016 Housing headlines are everywhere. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau recently announced a raft of housing reforms. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory recently rang alarms bells on ...

8. CMHC confirms that housing supply is the problem in Vancouver

   The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its quarterly housing market assessments for Canada’s major urban centres, noting that “evidence of problematic conditions” in Vancouver moved from moderate in April to strong ...