Canadians are increasingly pessimistic about housing, with most saying federal plans will not make homes more affordable or accessible, according to internal polling obtained by Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s department.Blacklock's Reporter says the research found housing costs and shortages are now a dominant source of stress for households, with many believing home ownership is either unattainable or would require taking on crushing levels of debt. Renters, the report said, are trapped in tight markets marked by low vacancy rates, rising prices and, in some cases, deteriorating living conditions.Seventy-four percent of respondents said housing in their area is unaffordable. The figure climbed to 79% in British Columbia and Ontario.When asked how they feel about housing affordability and access nationwide, 60 % said they were only slightly hopeful or not hopeful at all. The dominant emotions recorded were “worried,” cited by 73 %, and “frustrated,” cited by 69 %..Confidence in Ottawa’s response was strikingly low. Just 14 % said they were confident the federal government is working to improve affordability and access. A majority of 51 % said the government’s housing plan would not benefit people like them, rising to 74 % in Québec.The findings come from an in-house report dated June 10 titled Canada 2024-2025 Housing Advertising Campaign. The survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs using questionnaires completed by 2,025 Canadians nationwide at a cost of $105,030 to the housing department.Robertson has already warned that progress will be slow. Appearing before the Commons finance committee on October 20, the minister said restoring affordability would take at least a decade.“We can only work with the facts we have in front of us,” Robertson told MPs..Cabinet has said Canada must at least double construction rates to reach a minimum of 500,000 new housing units per year to meet demand. For context, housing starts peaked at 273,200 units in 1976.“That certainly will take many years to achieve given the changes that need to be made in the industry,” Robertson said, citing labour shortages. “At this point we don’t have the labour force to manufacture at that scale.”Pressed by Conservative MP Jasraj Hallan on when Canada would first hit the 500,000-home mark, Robertson offered no firm timeline.“The language we have used is ‘over the next decade,’” he said. “It is still very aggressive and ambitious to get to 500,000 over the next decade. That’s what we need to scale up to.”
