Ontario is the worst offender among Canadian provinces when it comes to the lack of sufficient housing stock, according to a new analysis from Scotiabank Economics.
A report published Wednesday shows that Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba are the only provinces below the national average when it comes to per capita housing stock available. Scotiabank’s analysis relies on data from 2020, the last year with complete information on hand.
To make up the difference, Ontario would need to add 650,000 new dwellings, Alberta would need to build 138,000 units and Manitoba would have to construct 23,000 homes.
But as wide as some of these gaps are, striving towards the mean in Canada is not a high bar.
Canada already ranks lowest among all G7 nations for per capita housing stock, Scotiabank reported last year, needing more than 1.8 million homes to reach the average of its peers on the international stage.
Jean-Francois Perrault, senior vice-president and chief economist at Scotiabank as well as the report’s author, wrote that the delta between Canada and other G7 nations when it comes to housing points to the “collective failure in right-sizing the number of homes relative to our population.”
Need to reconcile immigration with intensification
It’s the growth of Canada’s population that’s become so difficult to manage, Perrault told Global News in an interview on Wednesday, with the pain points coming largely at the municipal level.
While the federal government has stated that it wants more immigration to bolster Canada’s economy, that sweeping directive comes up against obstacles at the city level, such as NIMBYism, zoning challenges and a lack of available labour or materials in the construction industry.
“When it gets down to the nitty-gritty and the people are actually confronted with the day-to-day, what it means to have more Canadians from a real estate perspective, it’s a much, much more challenging situation.”
Ontario’s status as an attractive destination for immigration has made the shortage of available housing particularly stark, Perrault said. On the other end, Newfoundland and Labrador’s housing stock is the highest in Canada on a per capita basis, largely due to a decline in population through the mid-90s.
The ongoing shortage will continue to push up prices, Perrault says.
“If we don’t fix this, if we don’t right-size the number of homes in Canada or Ontario relative to population needs, things are never going to be more affordable.”
3:36 Housing market on the rise following record numbers in 2021
Housing market on the rise following record numbers in 2021
Provinces, feds looking for answers
There’s some optimism in the near term that Canada is taking the housing shortfall seriously, but it could be some time before the provinces are on track to fill the gap.
Conservative Party MP and shadow minister of finance Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday moved to study the drivers of inflation in Canada at the federal finance committee, with a particular focus on housing affordability. His motion passed unanimously with a report due by the end of May.
The federal government also has signalled plans for a housing summit to start examining how to fix the problem, though a date for that hasn’t been set.
Ontario also struck a task force on housing affordability late last year with the mandate to increase the supply of units for rental and ownership (Perrault notes in a disclosure the group is chaired by Scotiabank).
Housing starts are meanwhile picking up pace, Perrault says, enough to make a “small dent” in the housing stock gap. But it will take years of accelerated pressure to get the country’s housing market on track to meet the growing demand.
Until the dwellings are actually built, however, Perrault believes there’s little policymakers can do in the short term to make housing more affordable. Adjusting interest rates, for example, will do little to change the reality that home prices will rise as growing immigration levels continue to drive up demand for the stock that’s there, he says.
“In the short run, it’s very difficult to see how affordability is dramatically improved in the next year or two.”
2:01 Toronto looks to garden suites to grow housing options
Toronto looks to garden suites to grow housing options
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pay tribute to the life of Murray Sinclair, former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair died November 4, 2024 at the age of 73. (Nov. 4, 2024)
