Liberals are blamed for spending money on election instead of affordable housing

This time, federal election cost Canada almost $610 million. According to a broker Davelle Morrison of Bosley Real Estate Ltd., it would be better to spend the money on providing affordable housing.

“Our government says they want to help people and make sure real estate becomes more affordable in Canada, but their actions speak for themselves. The money they’ve spent on election, could have been spent on homes that people need. Instead, it was used for someone’s ego. As taxpayers, we should all be very upset by that,” – he noted.

Morrison says the 36-day election campaign, called by the Liberals to gain the majority status (in vain, as we can see), was full of promises that will be hardly fulfilled. One of the Liberals’ most significant promises concerning the real estate sector was raising supply in attempt to slow down the prices growth. However, this issue is not in the federal government’s jurisdiction because, Morrison points, it’s mostly a local problem.

“This issue can be solved by municipal governments,” – he noted. “The fast way to solve it is firing everyone in the permit department, as they are slowing things down. In addition to it, we have development charges. It means that if someone wants to transform a large house into a triplex, which is the fastest way to provide affordable housing, that won’t happen quickly because of existing rules. Moreover, the city will also charge more than $120,000 in development charges for that.”

M5V Developments has switched from Toronto to Simcoe County and the Niagara region, where it’s building new projects. According to the company’s CEO Sherard McQueen, there haven’t been any delays in those areas so far. The reason why M5V Developments decided to build projects in those areas is because their municipal governments actually support growth via a reasonable and effective process.

“The standard time for approval here —and I can speak first-hand — is 12-14 months,” – Sherard McQueen said. “Our buyers are receiving updates via social media systematically, but as the approval and permitting process is so simple, there are no delays.”

In addition to it, McQueen says both municipal governments have pre-consultations bringing together all stakeholders even before the land is bought and advising on a successful application tender.

“When the pandemic started, the process was simplified, marking a reasonable leadership in these areas, as such meetings were moved online, so that all city staff was still in contact with the customers,” – McQueen said. “As a rule, it takes from one month to six weeks before a pre-consultation is scheduled, so developers can make fast decisions without any delays.”