I am speaking as a resident…

I am speaking as a resident from Clarington.

Throughout the predictable turn of events that was perpetuated by the pandemic, I believe our government, - on all levels - has not taken anything seriously enough to avoid the housing crisis that we are experiencing.

In my opinion, allowing the interest rates to plummet, while limiting the construction of new homes created an unparalleled demand for housing. It forced ontarians to become financially aggressive and compete with one another just to purchase a home, albeit at an unrealistically high price. This encouraged real estate brokers with low morale to exploit the consumer, and yet this went (and still goes) unchecked. When the cost of houses went through the roof, so did the cost of rent.

Putting more homes on the market won't do anything to address the problems we saw. Interest rates should have been increased the moment we saw houses sell above asking price and yet we waited for two years before we did anything about it. Now, as interest rates are being increased, people are in danger of losing their homes. Who will buy these homes? I'm willing to bet the majority of homes acquired will not be purchased by residents or families, rather corporations, used as a rental property.

I'm curious to see how developing on the greenbelt will lower the cost of rent or housing. I think its a pretty lousy idea to assume that in the midst of a potential market crash, there is a proposal to relocate protected lands in the interest of putting more homes on the market. And let's face it, the proposal doesn't relocate protected lands to an area they were taken from, rather an area that the government is less likely to use later.

Here's a wild idea, maybe we should invest in public transit or investigate what can be done to reduce the cost of living as interest rates are hiked, cost of living is at an all time high and wages are still stagnant.