The housing crisis will require construction of at least 3.5 million new homes by 2030 at a cost of well over $1 trillion, according to the deputy chief economist of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Agency (CMHC)..According to Aled ab Iorwerth, the nation’s housing stock needs to hit 22 million housing units to achieve housing affordability across the country..However, regional differences mean the need will be most pronounced in Alberta and Quebec — areas with growing populations and incomes — and less so in traditional markets such as British Columbia and Ontario which are more sensitive to higher interest rates..When demand is strong and increasing — combined with insufficient and unresponsive supply — the result is a housing affordability crisis..“It’s no longer a question of whether we need to increase supply but rather how it can be increased,” he said..The enormous amount of dollars involved, means Canada’s approach to housing needs to be “rethought and done differently” he argued, requiring a combination of private ownership and public policy changes, especially with respect to zoning and permitting..“There must be a drastic transformation of the housing sector. We need an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to increasing the supply of housing to meet constantly growing demand,” he wrote..For its part, the federal government introduced its National Housing Strategy in 2017 to address what were affordability issues even then..And while Iorwerth argues more public housing — which makes of just 4% of the housing inventory — he argues that more private ownership is ideal..“So more social housing — while helpful — will not address the sweeping challenges we face throughout the housing system,” he added. “This includes boosting market-driven processes to help us achieve affordability.“.Speaking to the Alberta Municipalities convention last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said municipalities need to speed up approvals for new construction and singled out cities such as St. Albert and Leduc for having efficient permitting processes..“I’m told in the Calgary metropolitan region area, there are 26,000 units that could be approved, but have not been approved, because of delays in the regulator approval process,” the premier said..“This cannot continue. I want to be clear, with every municipality here, it is no longer an option to place roadblocks in the way of homes for Albertans.”
