The housing affordability…

The housing affordability crisis and resulting cost of living crisis are indescribably serious problems. Our pedantic control of development has excluded a generation from housing opportunities and the optimism, ambition, and stability that comes with it. We are driving away investment, youth, and desperately needed labour supply. Unchecked, this erosion of the fundamental requirement of housing will cause our economy to atrophy, and the institutions, services, and quality of life we take for granted will continue to fail. Governments at all levels have relied upon revenue from the housing industry to fund programs and social/physical infrastructure. With the inevitability of a recession ahead, governments will have little alternative but to raise taxes, cut spending, and revive consumer confidence if we hope to stave off profound and destabilizing socio-economic consequences.

This is the result of deliberate policy choices and a self immolating view toward development. We’ve politicized housing, and allowed the greed and selfishness of existing voters to trump opportunity for the next generations and future Canadians; not recognizing that we’re hurting ourselves in the process. We’ve interfered with economic fundamentals at an unsustainable pace as we’ve tried to compel society against its will to embrace a new way of growing our communities. The depth and breadth of this institutionalized notion that developers and development ought to be rigorously controlled is having predictable consequences to individuals and communities across this province. The planning system is broken.

Combined with the implications of deliberately higher energy costs, ballooning infrastructure deficits, increasing funding requirements for social services and programs, a lagging GDP, and diminished faith in the reliability and competency of our institutions and governments, this housing supply and affordability crisis represents a pivotal moment in history. This is an inflection point in modern western society, and unless we embrace serious course correction, this could be the beginning of the end of our western liberal democracy.

In this context, localized control of housing has demonstrated consistently across this province that if fails to grasp the severity of this problem, or the responsibility to do their part for the greater good. The new Niagara Official Plan fails to proactively and reliably plan to accommodate growth in a number of ways.

- It sets 60% intensification targets without also forcing compliance at the local level. Local area municipalities in Niagara lack the awareness of infrastructure capacity to support these intensification targets, or the economic means to pay for capacity upgrades. They lack the staff and resources to proactively complete secondary plans and programs to encourage this intensification. They also lack the political leadership to support the idea of intensification, instead adopting NIMBYism positions and support from special interest groups to oppose change and maintain the status quo. There is no mechanism to measure progress and adapt the policies to be responsive to market conditions. Let alone regard for market or economic viability generally. Economic realities are woefully absent from planning curriculum and growth management policy; the NROP is no exception.

- The subjective ideology which supports an ambitious natural heritage system that’s not supported by science or consistent with provincial policy. A generalized philosophy that more conservation is better, even if that means protecting features that serve no ecological function and/or harbour invasive species. The ambiguity of these environmental policies makes compliance unpredictable and costly. The loss of otherwise developable greenfield land supply will further affect land and housing costs. The practical implications of these environmental policies are unknown. Local governments are all too eager to do more than their fair share to fight climate change, but do not similarly prioritize their efforts to solve the housing crisis.

- We need to embrace flexibility and leniency in the implementation of policy. Adopt a housing first priority and make concessions in order to provide shelter for people. Process has become a means in and of itself, rather than a means to an end. If we have any hope of addressing the pent up demand for housing, let alone keep pace with future household formation and population growth, we need fundamental changes to support housing construction of all types, everywhere. Forcing the next generation into small units unsuitable to raise a family while we wait for seniors to vacate their homes is neither an effective or responsible housing policy.

Shelter is essential, and senior levels of government must have regard for the needs and interests of future community members if local councils inhibit that progress. Local councils have consistently demonstrated their NIMBY priorities, and only those who take solutions to this crisis seriously should be eligible for infrastructure and program funding. Municipal budgets lack the ability to finance the amount of affordable housing supply that is now required as a result of market housing supply constraints. Those unwilling to take responsibility for their short term and politically motivated priorities should be left to confront their consequences, only then may they learn the critical importance of housing supply and affordability, and the fundamental economic realities of our society.

For the sake of my children and their futures, I’m asking for committed leadership and meaningful solutions to this crisis; this includes amendments to the NROP to make housing more plentiful and affordable for all.

Jon Whyte - Resident of Niagara