It’s not as simple as basic math. There are problems with the age demographics of our country. We need more young people, If we don’t bring young people in, the economy will not be able to support the massive number of old people who are about to or have just retired.
We’re struggling to staff the businesses and services we have today.
Oh I’m aware of all that. But you need to deal with housing first. Given how serious the need is they should be making huge moves on housing. And yet…
The problem is that “solving” this problem would actually cause the majority of Canadians to lose massive amounts of money (even if they should never have earned that money in the first place) which would upset them and cause them to vote for another party.
It’s impossible to have affordable houses for people who want to buy, and simultaneously maintain the existing values of current owners.
Given that around 65% of residential properties in Canada are lived in by their owners, that means around 65% of Canadians would lose massive amounts of their home value. To get Victoria or Vancouver or Toronto to “affordable” by the official definition, it would require existing home prices to drop by somewhere between 70-90%
We’re struggling to staff the businesses and services we have today.
Then why are wages so low?