The Blueprint for More and Better Housing, released in early 2024, provided a plan for Canada to build 5.8 million affordable, resilient and low-carbon homes. Although many of the recommendations have proven popular with policymakers and the public, getting buy-in for the overall vision can be difficult. Too often, those policymakers and the public see the four goals of the Blueprint at odds with each other. They think that measures to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change must come at the expense of affordability.
When it comes to housing, no such trade-offs need to exist. Well-designed public policy can lower shelter-related costs for families, lower carbon emissions and make homes and neighbourhoods more resilient to extreme weather events. By building homes the right way, we can drive down specific costs that makeup more than 40% of household budgets.
In this report, we pull some recommendations from the Blueprint for each order of government and place them under the appropriate pathway. This reimagining of the Blueprint can guide policymakers, from provincial governments that are looking to slash utility bills for families to municipal governments trying to slow the growth of property taxes while ensuring communities can meet their climate targets and create neighbourhoods that are resilient to extreme weather events.
The Blueprint for More and Better Housing, released in early 2024, provided a plan for Canada to build 5.8 million affordable, resilient and low-carbon homes. Although many of the recommendations have proven popular with policymakers and the public, getting buy-in for the overall vision can be difficult. Too often, those policymakers and the public see […]
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Over the past six years, from Canada Day 2018 to Canada Day 2024, Canada’s population has grown by over 4.2 million people, requiring a substantial increase in Canada’s housing supply. This rapid naturally leads to the question, Which communities are getting it done when it comes to homebuilding? In this memo, Ontario Communities Falling Behind […]
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There is a broad consensus that Canada is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation has estimated that 5.8 million homes, nationally, need to be built by 2030 in order to address the housing affordability crisis. In Ontario, the provincial target is 1.5 million homes. As part of […]
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International students are an invaluable part of the prospective Canadian workforce that can help address the critical skilled labour shortages facing many Canadian industries, including construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. However, Canada’s current policies are at odds with the objective of having international students stay and work in Canada. If this is unaddressed, Canada will fail […]
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Canada’s forestry sector is facing a labour shortage due to a wave of baby boomer retirements and little interest from younger generations to pursue a career in forestry. Despite the need for more workers, women still comprise only 17% of the sector in Canada. One study also found that women in forestry are rarely in […]
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To keep up with an aging and growing population, it is projected that Ontario will need to build 1.5 million homes in the next ten years. Yet, Ontario has never built more than 850,000 homes in a ten-year period. Who is responsible for making this 1.5 million homes goal a reality, while making it happen […]
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