City Way Off Target On Housing: PATTON
Bulldog commentator Mike Patton wonders about how the city is performing:
Can't hit a target
Mike Patton is the former communications director for Mayor Larry O’Brien and a Conservative activist.
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
My insurance went up 40%, (no claims ever, and I shopped around), My mortgage went up 46% due to interest rates. As we have the same “problems” as every G20 country in this respect (its not a single politician doing this), contractors and investors in multi unit projects are in the same situation and it is risky and expensive to build right now, and costs are rising.
Post WWII it was difficult as well, today we have mass migration from wars and under-built cities driving this scarcity.
I believe that unless we “fund” building with tax dollars/incentives, it will be this way until interest rates change. For example, there was a “tax measure, one that was introduced in 1974 and ended in 1982, and which rewarded often wealthy professionals with tax deductions when they invested in housing.”
There is a mismatch between what the provincial and federal government programs are attempting to stimulate (building starts) and what municipalities can control. The city can only smooth the path for approvals all the way to issuing a building permit. The city cannot actually start construction.
Which takes us back to the mismatch. Is it due to incompetence within the provincial and federal bureaucracies? Or, is it political gamesmanship wherein the senior levels of government want to appear to be doing something, but lack the funds (deficits being what they are) to be able to put their money where their collective mouths are? My money is on the latter.