Experts say Ottawa is playing more of a role in housing, which is mostly a provincial and territorial responsibility, but federal involvement hasn’t brought much relief amid rising home prices.

  • Cyborganism
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    211 months ago

    But that’s all municipal and to some degree, provincial.

    What the feds need to do is curb immigration for a while until we figure this out and also create legislation for the realtor business/profession or just make it obsolete. Why the fuck do we need these dweebs when we can just simplify the process instead. There would be no more incentive from those bastards to blow up prices and give bad advice to people for a bigger commission.

    • @[email protected]
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      511 months ago

      It’s all within the mandate of CMHC, they have used the tools to achieve this before.

      Housing plans. Municipal planning. Housing construction. Planned, self-contained, communities. Housing quality improvement. Urban renewal. Density enforcement. Non-profit low income housing.

      These are all things CMHC has done in the past, and can do again in the future.

      Curbing immigration may help housing, but I don’t know what the impacts to that on the labour for are. We’re already in a labour crunch and using foreign workers.

      Realtors are one I hadn’t thought of. They should go the way of travel agencies, or be replaced by non-profits of there is something about them I’m missing.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        I keep hearing about this labour crunch, and yet as someone who builds houses as a job (carpenter) this is the slowest summer since 2020 for building houses in Alberta. The builders only seem to want to build pre-purchashed houses and have limited the “spec” houses they build and sell later. It’s the same for a lot of friends we have in the industry, people are scrambling to find work, not workers.

        And I’ve been putting out resumes to nearby industries & not getting much attention. So really, how much is there a real labour shortage, and where? Because the 4th & 5th biggest cities in the country aren’t doing so well.

        • @[email protected]
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          111 months ago

          Industries 62, 72, and 81 are all above 6% vacancy.

          Construction had 64k vacancies last quarter, 12k of those in Alberta.

          I get it, it sucks when the jobs aren’t where you want to live, I’ve moved my family 6 times (in 15 years) for work, it’s harder every time.

    • Kichae
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      511 months ago

      Immigration isn’t driving the housing crisis, though. Real estate speculation and short-term rentals are.

      Massively tax short-term rentals and non-primary-resident housing and watch the problem go away