Close Reading

Thank you emphasizing the role of municipalities in this. Unlike other jurisdictions, in Canada municipalities are responsible for all transport infrastructure and utility infrastructure with the exception of major provincial highways, airports, and electricity and gas distribution systems. Meanwhile, Canadian municipalities can only levy property taxes and no income or sales taxes. Thus, Canadian municipalities governments are very attached to property owners, leading to the political conditions that make housing harder to build and new housing more expensive. The vast majority of the policies restricting housing supply and increasing costs of new housing, like development charges on new homes to fund infrastructure instead of taxing existing property owners, onerous and restrictive zoning regulations, and slow and expensive permitting processes all come from the cities. Honestly, for many city politicians it is to their advantage to make the crisis worse. Why wouldn’t a city councillor vote to raise development charges on building new homes instead of raising property taxes on existing homes to pay for stuff like replacing life expired sewer and road and subway infrastructure!? His constituents aren’t going to care about the costs of new homes, which affect people moving to the city or younger generations, which are either not yet residents of the city or too young to vote.

I guess I'll start building RF power generator for my house.

es european we are not allies anymore usa, and i doubt we will be ever as close again as before, since your republikan party will bring a trump 3.0 to the white house sooner or later. we cant trust you anymore and we have to diversify our economy away from you, build our own arms dont buy yours, and be fully independent on all fronts. you voted against us in the un, you told us article 5 doesnt apply so you owe europe around 1 trillion USD for the afghanistan war where we helped you on article 5 basis.

Congratulations Mr. Trudeau, you finally sound like our Prime Minister should. Now start making this country self sufficient so we don't have to rely on anyone. No more selling off our Crown corporations our land and other businesses to foreign countries. Keep Canada Canadian and give jobs to born Canadians first. Stock pile our oil and gas for our use and lower the prices of these things so that transportation cost make things easier for business and personal enjoyment. Don't tax the farmer so that they can supply food to everyone cheaper. We should not be struggling in this country which has all the natural resources . The unnatural population growth has put a strain on the whole system and in some cases put us in danger too. The crime rate has increased in large part to your lax immigration system. All the businesses increased the prices of everything due to this unnatural population growth. Supply and demand is not working the way it is supposed to anymore. In a normal household we make plans and prepare for changes. You just said ok, let's bring people here and forgot about the preparations. Infrastructure first man. If your going to bring half a million people over here, build the houses first bro. Nobody in Canada should be homeless which is another result of poor preparation. The housing prices and everything else went through the roof in large part due to the unnatural population growth. Anyway, think first before you act just like in a private home. Good luck Mr. Trudeau and everyone else. I hope it's not too late to get this country back on track so we can all enjoy life the way we used to....Peace

We are all living in strange times! The bad guy (Putin) is defended like he’s the good guy and the victim (Zelensky) is criticized like he’s the aggressor. This is so weird and negative like an episode of the Twighlight Zone! I think I can understand how Trump is viewing things. Bill O’Reilly seems to know how Trump thinks. Nevertheless, things are upside down! USA voting at the UN with North Korea and Putin and Belarus and against the EU and UK and NATO alliance nations … against the victim Ukraine? This is unheard of! Yet this is so ironic because Leonid Brezhnev, who was the USSR leader, when Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Afghanistan, and Vladimir Putin was a young KGB agent at that time, working for Brezhnev, is now in his position as leader, and he invaded Brezhnev’s sovereign homeland of Ukraine. Brezhnev must be weeping from hell and regretting his invasion of Afghanistan! Crying from hell, seeing his servant, Putin, in his seat of authority, and invading his homeland like he did to Afghanistan, I’m sure Brezhnev regrets but it’s too late now. He’s burning in hell and he can’t get out of hell! \n\nThe bad deal that Clinton and Yeltson and John Major dealt to Ukraine in the 1990s when they moved all of her nuclear weapons to Russia was like declawing the Ukrainian cat and now the cat can’t defend herself against aggressors because she has no claws to defend herself from aggressive attackers!\n\nCanada and Mexico are our friends not our enemies! China and North Korea still idolize the USSR/CCCP flag and Soviet Union hammer and sickle. Putin is a thug and gangster like Joseph Stalin. Everyone forgot what happened to Alexander Litvinenko except for those like John Bolton. \n\nWe are all living in perilous times! The wrongdoer (Putin) is called good and the victim (Zelensky) is called bad! This is so negatively bizarre and wrong! Isaiah 5:20 warns against this! Putin is not pure evil but he’s definitely not a good guy! He’s a gangster and thug like Al Capone! I think President Trump is walking on a tight rope by trying to make a good deal with Putin. And that tight rope spans from one high rise building to another - the senate and house chambers of the US legislature. The midterms are coming soon and if President Trump loses the house and senate, that tight rope could snap! And all those shock and awe executive orders etc. could come back to haunt him like a boomerang thumping his head.\n\nNever in my wildest imagination would I ever imagine Canadians harboring bad feelings towards the USA! This is 180 degrees opposite of how things were when Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney were in the political arena!

YOUR Housing Policy Spent BILLIONS without building 1 single house! Also, double/tripling the cost of housing in some areas. Failed policy after Failed policy!

As an US resident, I am in no way in agreement with our government…..I hate the fact that our closest neighbors for centuries hate us. I am depressed every single day since Trump entered the White House the first time. Our former and greatest president allowed me a reprieve but now I am thinking about moving from this country due to my extreme depression. Our family helped build this country as we were here before the revolutionary war. I was expecting a nice retirement and Trump and his cronies are making that impossible by possibly stealing our social security that I was told was I would get back for the last 50 yrs. I certainly understand why other countries do not like us…….I do not even talk to my family anymore as I voted for the prosecutor and they voted for the felon.

Wow, articulate strong talk, no lies, no propaganda, no bluster, none of the total and complete unrelenting bullshit we have endure on a daily basis from the sociopathic delusional asshole that currently occupies the White House. It should be no surprise that our leadership chooses to blame all of our problems on someone else, because that's exactly what they do every day. We have a drug problem, it's because of Canada and Mexico. We have an immigration problem, likewise Mexico and Canada. We have a deficit problem, that's because of the EU and NATO. Our problem is our government, specifically Republicans who won't accept the simple truth: you want to solve problems you have be disciplined and smart. You have to spend money to fix your problems instead of blaming some else and trying to get them to pay for it. You pay to solve your problems instead of giving huge tax cuts to people who don't need them. You stop lying to your people. You want to change the trade imbalance? Build products that other countries want at a price that makes sense. The EU has no laws that prevent American car manufacturers from selling their cars in Europe. American car companies make shitty cars. They make cars that are too big, that don't make sense for European where streets can be very small and gas is very expensive. The US manufacturers don't make a single small car in thos country that can compete with European cars. US agricultural products are laced with poisonous chemicals that are outlawed in the EU because they kill people. Our governmeent doesn't give a shit about that because to grow healthy food means you have to cut profits, almighty dollars, instead of grow things that the rest of the world will accept. We have an idiot for president who thinks he knows more than anyone else and an idiot party that won't tell him the truth. This is going to cost us big time. We are going into recession, probably a long one because we don't have real leaders and the president on his best day is nothing more than a reality TV personality, and not a very entertaining one at that.

I’m a government worker in the city where I was born and raised. I’m also a mother, a wife, and a family-oriented person. Because of the sheer incompetence of this administration—and the people who blindly followed along—our future is more uncertain and jeopardized than ever before.\n\nI was planning to buy a car for our growing family. We had been saving for a house and making future plans, but now, all of that—especially spending—is on hold. The U.S. is a consumer-driven economy, so what do you think will happen when people like me stop spending due to uncertainty?\n\nThis is madness. We need to speak out, build mutual aid networks, and fight for a future that uplifts everyone—including our allies.

Only rich pricks, Canadians and illegals will suffer from this. Average folk like myself, who won't be buying a new car, or a house don't care. No more new houses means less illegals to build them and less houses means less traffic. Win win.

36 trillion in national debt. That’s over $100,000 debt for each American. This is why Trump is taking action. The U.S. is going to default on just the interest payments alone!!! Canadas national debt per Canadian is $35,000. \n\nIt’s time our politicians prepare for rainy days by building manufacturing for the raw resources rather then send them off to be sold back as products to us. We bring in wealthy immigrants that price out our Canadian born citizens trying to buy into the housing market while the tent cities grow. The Liberal party has failed us.

I’ve been predicting this since two years ago, this is my assessment for the near future: Putin’s euphoria about the USA abandoning Ukraine will be short lived. The EU is determined to finish the job in Ukraine. And it has three powerful triumph cards ?: 1. the $300billion Putin’s frozen money 2. The EU has an enormous capacity to build weapons in short time. Germany built 6 liquefied natural gas docking stations in 6 months, a world’s record. Ukraine has demonstrated that Russia is a paper tiger. Its drones have devastated not only the Russian tanks, but the oil refineries. Imagine if the E5 army (Germany, the UK, France, Poland and Italy) start producing weapons? Which they will. But the current weapons are ( the typhoon, grippen, mirage, Rafale ) more sophisticated than the old mig29 or the useless Su57. Russia doesn’t dare to try to dominate the Ukrainian airspace. And Ukraine, without a navy, destroyed 40% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Even the flagship Moskva!! 3. But the most powerful weapon that the European Union has is the Almighty stable euro. The United States has been printing trillions of dollars and exporting them for years, they’re hiding under the mattresses of Third World countries for a rainy day. If the EU says we no longer will accept dollars, the United States will disappear overnight. The BRICS countries will pile up on the USA, which will be alone in the world. Hyperinflation and poverty will be the result. This ability to weaken the USA economy and currency, By simply saying we want to move away from that currency, will make Wall Street run away from it. The printed trillions that slowly flew out the country will fly back in days, creating a hyperinflation that Zimbabwe and Venezuela wish they had…. Warren Buffet is getting out of the United States stock market to the tune of $350 billion and put that money in the Japanese stock market, this should tell you what is going to happen soon. Either the big guys in Wall Street take control of the guy in the White House, or they will have no country or no money. The EU will preserve democracy and the civilized world. The non proliferation treaty will be history and Russia will never dare to threaten the west anymore. Thank you, Putin. You won, you destroyed the USA, but created a more powerful Europe. Celebrate on May 9. Europe will celebrate when the last Russian is dead in Ukraine

2018 Trump put tariffs on Canadian lumber and the cost to build a house or any thing requiring lumber went up. House insurance went up as the replacement cost using lumber had gone up. Any business with a relation to lumber had gone up. The US has given itself cancer and cut cancer prevention research. Trump is the unwitting AntiChrist.

Build a house every 2 minutes .

It's all about housing, build much more housing by not allowing others to determine what you do on your own land. If others determine what you do on your land it's not your land.

it's not complicated: canadian boomers got rich with houses by making it impossible to build new ones and by flooding the country with migrants. So what are the young canadians going to do? oh right vote for the left because they were brainwashed in every canadian education system. No hope

Build more houses

Your comparison to Spain doesn't apply here because we don’t have a construction bubble—the primary issue is that companies aren’t building enough single-family housing. This is a provincial issue, but it’s poorly covered because Americans don't understand our political system. Essentially, an unhealthy percent of our economy is tied up in speculation on *existing* real estate. So the solution might ironically be what Spain did and attract foreign investors to build in the country.

A thought experiment:\nImagine that the Canadian government was given a magic technology that could build five million new homes overnight and assign them by lottery to people who didn't currently own a home.\nWould the government push the button to build the homes and give them to people who needed a home?\nNope. It would not.\nWhy?\nBecause the price of existing houses and apartments in Canada would drop by at least 50% overnight. And in our new, insane, everything-is-financialized, asset-prices-are-the-most-important-thing world, that would be deemed unacceptable.\nJust chew on that for a moment: we have a society, an economy, a governing and property owning class, that would prefer to forego the incredible quality of life increases for the population of magicking 5 million homes into existence, than to lose the valuations of a resource that is so scarce that demand grossly outstrips supply.\nWe live in a world of utter madness.

In Japan buildings depreciate in value, like cars, so the house I built last year is worth less this year (and my taxes on it are less). When I first got here I thought it was a horrible system, but now I see what a powerful benefit it is. Housing is quite affordable and there are lots of mixed neighborhoods, like mine, with million-dollar homes, small multi-units, and fewer gated communities. We suffer from a blight of abandoned buildings because at a certain point it just doesn't make economic sense to fix up an old (often cheaply made) home. But because home ownership is a luxury, like a fancy car, not a necessary means to accrue wealth, mortgages and rents are low and there's cheap (and small, so very very small) housing everywhere.

Canada has so much red tape its unbeleivable. I am trying to build a house right now and licences, permits, reports etc is taking MONTHS and THOUSANDS of dollars. Its like if every level of gouvernement doesn't want our money and investment. They want to be bigger and even slower instead of lean and fast

This video is horrible. I don't know what political angle is, but the real problems are very well known and have nothing to do with what you said. First, housing is incredibly difficult to build in Canada because of regulations and land title problems, I.e., you don't own that land, the indians do. On top of that, there is a constant influx of immigrant that require housing that doesn't exist. Children cry because they cannot leave their parents' houses because they can't move anywhere, so they can't find any jobs locally, and they're trapped. There is no will in the canadian government to change these immigration policies, to change the land rules so that people can own land and build houses, or do anything about their incredibly micro managed economy that makes it impossible to do anything. If so, yeah, they go to the US to have a future while Canada stagnants and dies.

My parents live in a wealthy town where houses are all 1M+ and they vote down ANY push for new building. Excuses include animal habitats, obstruction of scenery, pollution from construction. They've voted for more immigrants simultaneously.

the government. could abandon the idea that the private sector will build enough of the right types of homes when there is zero incentive to do that and maybe start building public housing like it did in the 60's .

For 2 decades Canadian cities have had a condo building boom (for non-North Americans, a condo(minium) is a building built by developers with the intent of selling off the apartments individually, instead of the whole building being one large rental property - that's a rental building) with the rather strange peculiarity that the bast majority of those condos are small - studios, one bedroom and one bedroom + den (in North American real estate linguo, a den is a small room without a window). There are some two bedroom apartments, and three+ bedroom apartments are very rare. One of the reasons for this is a general mindset that apartments are for singles, young childless couples and retired empty-nesters, while families are supposed to live in a house of their own. Another reason is that some archaic building codes restrict the type of apartments developers can fit in a building. The result of this is that in a country which certainly does not lack space, there are now tons of small apartments (the demand for which has been going down in many areas), but it's too expensive to afford a larger space to buy (whether a house or one of those rare large apartments) once you want to start a family.

I grew up on Vancouver Island and the local government didn’t allow for secondary suites. Then with housing crisis continuing the fact that province had to step in with a carrot and stick approach to municipal governments to approve more housing and change regulations stick being if you don’t meet targets you lose power and carrot you hit the targets you get cash this created a direct opportunity cost of nimbyism plus the federal government would top the amounts if a municipal government hit there housing targets. It changed really quickly the municipal government changed the law to allowing secondary suites to be built which the cost per square foot to build is 1/3 compared to new builds. This allows more rental properties and housing options and allows more people to purchase goods and services in the local area and not dramatically increasing the costs of new infrastructure to service them as compared to a new housing development on the outskirts of the city. A home could comfortably double it’s density every effectively, affordably and swiftly.

Yeah housing is a mess here. Even getting the most basic, cookie-cutter housing project off the ground can take several years and tens of thousands of dollars. Obviously some regulation is good, but when every step is expensively regulated to the hills and back, no one wants to build.

High real estate prices have fueled hidden corruption by all levels of government. Until you try to build something you just can't imagine the fees and cost of regulation compliance. Since values keep rising there are more hands out demanding more by all levels of government. Another (sort of) related issue that has been ignored until recently has been Trudeau's reparations to First Nations. He has manipulated the courts and civil service to acquiesce to whatever is demanded. The province of BC just ceded sovereignty to an Island chain (Haida Gwaii) to an indigenous group that is against virtually any economic development. Northern Canada, as vast as is, is essentially blocked from new resource development. Every investment, including housing development, needs approval from, usually in the form of a payment to, an Indian Band. The level of corruption here is at South America levels.\n\nI think the unsaid part about excessive immigration levels the last few years was that was used to mask what the government was doing.

It takes 6.5 years in Vancouver for a real-estate developer to get a building permit approved. The result = housing shortage and housing crisis. The explanation = a mix of elected city officials being incompetent and caving in to pressure from wealthy local residents who don't want their real-estate portfolio value to go down (hence they don't do everything they can to fast track building approvals).

Our city governments need to liberalise the housing market, in most cities across Canada it's illegal to build anything other than single family homes. When the developers eventually do push through a multi family building, they have to build a mega tower to offset the costs of the often 2 years approval process. Which makes people hate development more

Boomers in Canada are very nimby thus making housing so much harder to build, leading to younger generations emigrating to other countries like south of the border. Also eating up lands zoned to industrial, and thus making industrial rent more expensive to the remaining patches of land available on city outskirts. \n\nMaybe it’s time to review the policies overall. Canada has been treating its older generations like kings, with their large lawns and healthcare which they frequently use…while younger generations and immigrants work like a slave.

The problem here is that building more houses de-values existing houses. Your parents are the ones lobbying against building your house. Regulations need to be massively reformed (e.g. ignore nimby's), alternatively there should be a framework for constructions projects to financially compensate local property owners for their loss in value. A lot less nimby's would exist if they got $10,000 for the construction of a new block of flats.

Your narrative about existing homeowners being in opposition to policies that support home construction is bogus. \n\nThe real story is the following:\n\n1. Canadians are unsure whether building more homes leads to more housing and lower prices. This might sound like a joke but there are now surveys that confirm this. And most Canadians I have asked myself really are unsure whether we should build more homes.\n2. Endless bureaucratic barriers increase the cost of and deter new construction.\n\n\nMany Canadians really believe that building housing increases the price of housing, so they think they are being virtuous when they vote for policies that deter housings construction.\n\nAll of the other economic problems are downstream of the housing shortages.\n\nEdit: For those of you curious about these strange Canadian beliefs, the youtube “About Here” has a decent video on the topic trying to dispel the odd beliefs: https://youtu.be/pbQAr3K57WQ?si=j5l_vWiudz45fiGr

Just. Build. More. Houses.

While I agree as we have the same problems with illegal Venezuelans. I am sure they are legal permanent residents. They are hard working people who are building Canada. Canada needed the skill sets and they took advantage of this. From the video -Who are the drug addicts? Who don't have housing? Canadians didn't want to study nor work and are paying the price.

New York looks disgusting. Why not being progressive and regulate how much hospitals can charge patients instead? Or build more affordable but spacious housing?

Have any buildings housing illegals demolished.

look we all share this world just embrace it nothing to fear but fear itself. \n by not understanding other people cultures and beliefs.\nit's not like Canada hasn't got the space yes of course cities are going to get overcrowded and maybe the government should concentrate expanding the suburbs and building villages outside of the cities. more investment is needed of course not migrants fault.\ndedicate a area for a village and you give the person half an acre of land free leasehold. half the cost of building supply by the government for a house or flat and you pay it back to the government of a maximum 10% interest over 30 years

Indiana are very difficult nation to respect the rules and laws in the housing sector to during to jobs - and education. They don't want to learn the foreign rule except just want to make money by ignoring all rules. \nI rule said to allow the apartment to be sized and rules to all nations 2 people the indians will bring the same apartment 10-15 person minimum, damages within a days weeks, non-respect the rules they agreed to respect. \nWhen landlords are the same rules as all others indians think it's only for them, and cleanliness maintenance is the main issue. Before indians rented the buildings front, corridors, and inside all was super clean as soon Indians rented the apartment all the bags full of garbage, compost, dresses, and shoe food all in front and everywhere. The apartment and building itself are not livable and others are complaining threatening the landlord to quiet the building. For Indians tennats many landlords lost. their good respectable tenant, None want to stay with them, It's not about color or language its about cleanness and noise sharing s with many and inviting all friends which is allowed only in India, not other developed countries or Canada. U.S. If they can't respect the rules of law in Canada they should not come. Canad landlords will not allow 11/2 or 21/2 apartments with 10-15 peoples, who breaks all inside out crowd noise, deny damages, and blame Landlords.

It’s many Irish ☘️ people here illegally why yous never speak on them they work on construction building houses u can go on sites and see them why they stay???

I think that instead of deporting these immigrants, America should force them all to work for free for three or four years to build infrastructure and build houses and a whole city for other immigrants, and then give them a multi-year residency and then give them permanent residency. In this way, other lazy immigrants who intend to take advantage of the comfortable life in America will forget about entering the United States illegally.

Legal immigration could help the USA......Bring back some of jobs most people who live in the USA don't want to do.... increase our tax base. Lower our food prices.... Help build more houses. Factories jobs will not pay a lot for manual labor again, those days are over ... but we will still need engineers.... computer IT people.ect..If young people don't get an education or get into a trade you will be out of luck.

I work with people getting them housing and I can tell you that the major focus is housing illegals besides that rent is too expensive. We do have problem with housing people, besides that there are too many buildings. There is not enough money to pay rent forever for illegals and they are the majority to be house.

This hurts Americans. Lumber to build houses destroyed in the hurricane will be too expensive. He needs to scale this back. Canada should cut power before the Superbowl so people realize how much the US gets from Canada!

Majority of people migrating to canada are from a single Indian state Punjab, but dont blame them to migrate when your government couldn't do math on how many people it need and invited foreigners desperately to come because its population is getting old without building houses/ without enough jobs.

I came from India,has to take 5 exams ,all police clearance to come to America,came and started working. A co worker from Kenya came luck dip and all children were given 10000 dollars and help to buy house during Obama administration. I heard from her and ?but God gave me strength to build my life,I love America.

More of Trump's bullsh+t and lies. 1. There are no facilities to house 30,000 people. 2. It would take 4 to 6 years to build the facility and cost between $5.5 to $20 billion. In other words, more hot air to play to his base with no hope of ever making it happen.

people still don't get it, they demand public housing and government help, when that's exactly why there's an issue. Too many regulations, permits, costs, licensing, carbon tax, unions etc. to build... we have a marxism problem, not a free market problem

Don't be daft. In 2024, over $180 BILLION was given to Ukraine. In 2025, Ukraine will receive ZERO aid and that money of $180,000,000,000 will more than suffice to build a forever prison for Illegal Aliens, who invaded the US to get free housing, free food, free care. Well, they will get what they came for.

There is in fact no actual housing shortage in the USA whatsoever. The problem is that that wealthy individuals have strong incentives to park excess capital in real estate and landlords have strong incentives to maintain asset values through cash flow potential (appraised through $/sq.ft rent revenues). What ends up happening in both cases is that you end up with lots of empty houses sitting collecting dust artificially gaining value due to scarcity, and with rentals, you end up with perpetually inflated rents and vacancy rates that are as high as a landlord can tolerate just to maintain the appearance of value to the lenders. Often these owners will borrow more money and use an apartment that might be 40% vacant as the collateral for the lender and go buy another building and so on. What people don't penalize is the fact that that 40% vacant building with 60% rented out at above fair value gets treated on the balance sheet to the bank as if its 90% rented out from an asset value perspective thereby setting the asset price artificially high. Simple legislation of the tax code can fix this issue and unlock lots of sidelined housing. All we have to do is progressively tax 2nd 3rd 4th ect. homes higher and higher rates that essentially cancel out the asset gains, and do something similar for vacant units in a apartment building. \nIts just at the core a case of the rich hoarding something that has been made artificially rare. On top of all of this, because of how valuable properties have become, there are now many interests that capitalize on the entire process of building new housing that make it ever more expensive. Our taxes are funding numerous regulators that stymie new development, while the developers have to then hire numerous attorneys and planners to pitch a project and litigate it through the cities to get approvals. This can take over 10 years in a major city. All this contributes to the ridiculous costs of building these days.