How did we get to blanket upzoning? And why did city councils across Canada agree to take millions of dollars from the former Liberal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF)? It starts with the supply and demand equation. The seed for blanket upzoning in Canada was planted five and a half years ago when COVID-19 arrived on our shores. To counter any damage COVID might do to the economy, the Bank of Canada lowered its rate to .25%, a historic low that was followed by private banks and mortgage agencies lowering mortgage rates. Canadians, who take homeownership very seriously, as a place to live as well as an investment in their futures, jumped on the rates, buying homes at an unprecedented pace. As demand caused supply to dwindle, prices rose into the stratosphere, with average prices in Toronto and Vancouver cresting the $1 million mark. Supply got so low there were bidding wars in both cities, with homes selling over asking prices. In Calgary the city-wide average price pushed the $700,000 mark (it currently hovers just below $600,000, as per CREB). Exacerbating the COVID rush, the Trudeau Liberals opened Canada’s doors to the mass immigration of permanent and temporary immigrants, to the tune of close to seven million people (federal government numbers from 2020 to 2023), giving no consideration to where they would live. .And despite saying it would lower the number of immigrants arriving, the Liberal government approved immigration permits for 817,000 people in the first four months of 2025. A that rate, it will be 2.5 million by the end of the year. Enter the supply and demand equation. Cries of “we need more housing” arose across the country and the bureaucrats and government rats jumped up to show Canadians they were doing something to solve the crisis they created. Municipal governments fast-tracked building permit approvals, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver, and soon mega condo developments were underway in both cities. In Calgary, empty downtown office buildings started being converted into apartment buildings, supported by financial grants from the city. Additionally, Calgary and area home builders set new records three years in a row. But prices remained out of reach for many Canadians, especially younger ones in their twenties. The deep thinkers in Ottawa decided if housing costs were too high, there must not be enough supply, so they set out to change that. Digging into taxpayers’ pockets, the Trudeau government pulled out $4.44 billion and established the HAF to bribe city councils across Canada to eliminate areas of their cities that were zoned only for single family homes, the birth of blanket upzoning. .Blanket upzoning is the creation of a bureaucracy that paid no attention to its consequences plus a federal government awash in taxpayer cash that it distributed like Hallowe'en candy to give the appearance it was doing something to solve the housing crisis. Getting a piece of the HAF money was something city councils across the country couldn’t resist. In Calgary, the feds signed an agreement worth $228.5 million dollars to encourage blanket upzoning, sweetening the pot with bonus bribery bucks for awarding multi-family building permits, but not single family home permits. Not for starting construction, just for approving permits. Earlier this year, the city cashed a federal bonus HAF cheque for $22.8 million for the multi-family permits it approved. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect, the effort to increase supply has in many cases increased the number of neighbours arguing with each other. I heard someone who lives in an older community say, “Every time we see a for sale sign go up in front of a home on our street, we shudder and worry it’s going to be one of those blanket upzoning multi-family monstrosities that will wreck the neighbourhood.” .The real housing crisis is a lack of affordability, which blanket upzoning can’t solve on a city-wide basis. Calgary's northwest community of Bowness has more blanket upzoning permits than most other areas and the average single family home price is $800,000. So, a developer pays $800,000 for a house that is going to be demolished at a cost of between $8,000 and $30,000 according to Calgary Demolition Services. Then the infrastructure that home sits on needs to be inspected and possibly upgraded to be able to handle a four-unit townhome complex that will cost in the neighbourhood of $750,000 to build (per an AI internet search). Once the dust has settled, the developer is in for about $1,500,000 and needs to sell each townhome for about $375,000 just to get his money back. To make a profit of 20% (not uncommon), each unit needs to be sold for about $420,000, well above the affordable level for most home buyers. Blanket upzoning was never about affordability. It was all about HAF money.
