In light of the prevailing mythology that Canada is “empty,” it’s counter-intuitive to realize Canada’s cities are unusually crowded. And still unaffordable.
Wyndham Lewis once described Canada as a “monstrous, empty habitat”.
And the British writer is by no means the only one to say this country is vast, imposing and under-populated.
Given that Canada is geographically the second-largest country in the world, it’s understandable that many feel it is largely empty.
Across Canada, a nurse earns between $28 and $50 an hour, which works out to a moderate to median annual household income of $58,240 to $104,000. At the Canadian standard definition of housing affordability – that housing takes up no more than 30 per cent of pre-tax household income – a single-parent nurse would be looking for a two- or three-bedroom home costing between $1,456 and $2,600 per month. But the average asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment rental in Vancouver is $3,666.
Everyone agrees that Canada faces a housing shortage. But it’s not a shortage of homes: it’s a shortage of homes people can afford. In Toronto, for example, there is currently a glut of condos on the market. Prices have fallen as investors offload properties: high interest rates mean their mortgage payments exceed the rents they can get.
Homes have become unaffordable because of the disconnect between wages and prices. Why? Because there’s a disconnect between wages and prices. The average price-to-earnings ratio in Canada more than doubled from 3.2 in 1980 to 6.7 in 2020. Vancouver currently has the highest price to earnings ratio , at 12.3, followed by Toronto at 9.3. To put that in perspective, to buy an average house in those cities in July 2024, you need a household income of $208,000 and $226,000 , respectively. Not exactly middle-class.
In July, Victoria firefighter Josh Montgomery wrote a letter to British Columbia Premier David Eby, imploring him to stop the city from relocating a homeless hub where people are expected to use drugs to a new space next to a senior’s residence — and only steps from his own home, where his young daughters play outside.
The top one per cent of Canadians pay only 23.6 per cent of their income in taxes, enjoying the lowest tax burden of all of us. Strangely, the anti-tax voices that have come running to defend the wallets of the middle class in recent months have failed to mention this fact.
In this time of rising living costs, Canadians are feeling the affordability pinch. Some powerful voices are quickly stepping up to say taxes are to blame, decrying the government’s supposed overreach into our pockets. But the real conversation we should be having is how Canada’s tax burden is distributed, and whether everyone is paying their fair share.
The US has sued a leading software company that collects and sells rental data, accusing it of subverting competition between landlords and feeding the country’s housing crisis.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has claimed RealPage‘s software algorithm meant rival landlords were sharing what would otherwise be private information, allegedly allowing them to illegally co-ordinate and raise rents.
“Everybody knows the rent is too damn high and we allege this is one of the reasons why,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
Feds to take steps on housing promises ahead of cabinet retreat in Halifax
HALIFAX – Housing Minister Sean Fraser is expected to unveil details on a Liberal promise to lease federal land to developers to build affordable housing on Sunday just before the full federal cabinet kicks off a three-day retreat in Halifax.
The annual end-of-summer cabinet session comes three weeks before Parliament returns for the fall sitting and is likely the last summer retreat for this cabinet before the next election.
It may be the last real chance this government has to reset itself with voters before asking them for another mandate.
Canada’s housing crisis is turning our hospitals into makeshift shelters for the homeless. In 2023, two Toronto-area hospitals reported that their 100 most frequent ER visitors, who were all homeless, made a staggering 4,309 combined visits. This isn’t just because they need shelter; their dire living conditions make it nearly impossible for them to follow basic medical care instructions, forcing them to depend heavily on hospitals to bridge the care gap.
Once seen as oases of calm and quiet, libraries across Canada are becoming increasingly chaotic – even dangerous – with staff often ending up on the front lines of crisis.
Data obtained by CBC News shows there’s been a dramatic rise in recent years in the number of security incidents — things like physical assaults, suspected overdoses, and thefts — at public libraries in Canada’s major cities.
Public libraries in Toronto are just another form of homeless shelter like the TTC.
Of course if they’re hosting Drag Queen Story hour I don’t care what the homies do.
What Doug Ford’s government gets wrong about Ontario’s homelessness crisis — and why it’s a problem
When Ontario’s new deputy housing minister assumed the role this summer, he was given an internal document briefing him on the housing crisis. That document included a staggering figure the government now concedes is false — an “unofficial” estimate that nearly a quarter of a million Ontarians are homeless.
The 234,000-person “unofficial” estimate is repeated twice in the footnotes of the transition documents prepared for MPP Vijay Thanigasalam in June. First reported by the Trillium, it’s a figure that bewildered experts — if true, it would suggest more than 95 per cent of Ontario’s homeless population is either living outside Toronto or off the radar, as the city’s own count in June sat at 10,627 people.
The owners of a thrift store on Vancouver’s Granville strip are fed up after spending $300,000 to fight off what they describe as escalating crime over the past three years.
Karla and Gary Ahlqvist have owned Wildlife Thrift Store on the corner of Granville and Drake streets since 2001.
Karla told CTV News that while they had dealt some level of crime over the years, it rapidly escalated once a temporary supportive housing facility replaced the Howard Johnson hotel down the street in 2021.
When local councillors and mayors descend on Ottawa next week for an annual municipal lobbying event, homelessness and growing social problems in Ontario’s towns and cities will be top of mind.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa — set to run from Aug. 18-21 — is an annual opportunity for local leaders to bend the ear of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s most senior ministers.
Pressure in recent weeks has grown from Ontario municipalities telling Queen’s Park the current system isn’t working, demanding a so-called new deal for property taxpayers and a top-to-bottom review of social and economic prosperity.
Like counterparts around the world, Canada’s youth are struggling, victims of a weak economy and a rising cost of living crisis. Whereas boomers rode an unprecedented wave of prosperity and higher living standards, younger Canadians, particularly those under 30, are now more pessimistic about the future than older generations.
These realities suggest severe consequences for the rest of us, and for our future. Younger voters were once seen as the driver of a progressive takeover of all institutions. But today younger voters are, if anything, headed in different directions, with some, notably single women, headed to the left while men, in almost all countries, moving decisively to the right.
The government of Ontario estimates nearly a quarter of a million people — roughly three of every 200 residents — are homeless, according to information contained in a housing ministry document.
The number is about nine times higher than the auditor general’s most recent estimate, and still likely drastically undercounts the true number of people experiencing homelessness in the province, experts say.
Imagine a quarter of a million people marching on Ottawa with blood in their eyes.
Heaven forbid that is Trudeau’s wretched fate!
Canadian developer aims to preserve airport’s features, including hangars and a runway, to draw residents and businesses to the neighborhood
A planned community for about 55,000 residents in Toronto will include the usual playgrounds, bike paths and shops. It will also feature 11 airplane hangars and more than a mile of airport runway.
That is because the 30 billion Canadian dollar, equivalent to about $22 billion, development will be located at the city’s former Downsview Airport.
Airports have been repurposed as communities and parks before, but developers typically raze the original infrastructure and start from scratch. In this case, Northcrest Developments is betting that by preserving the airport’s main features it can enhance the community’s allure.
City subsidized Slum in 5 years time is my bet.
