You guys seem to have a similar problem to the UK?
People (NIMBYs being one component) seem unable to agree to build on greenbelt land when necessary.
The Green Belt fiasco in Ontario incenses me. Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, is a little Trump.
There was no need to take any good farmland out of the Green Belt. Ford’s own government commissioned a report last year concluding there was other land that could be developed with many more homes provided.
The only reason the Green Belt land got rezoned was as a payoff to his developer buddies. There will be an RCMP investigation hopefully into this matter.
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Ottawa’s expanding a lot. All the redneck communities within an hour are getting full of professionals commuting/wfh in ottawa. Kemptville, arnprior, etc. Used to be nepean was the outskirts for working in ottawa, but not anymore. You can live somewhere remote, have reasonable amenties, and still work in the city. One thing ottawa’s good for is there’s a lot of the great outdoors to live in, well within commuting distance and the last 10-15 there’s a lot of people taking advantage of that.
If I was going to work in Ottawa, i’d buy a spot on the st. lawrence river. An hour to ottawa, an hour or so to montreal. Lots of stuff within an easy commute. Except, I’m not going to work in Ottawa lol.
I don’t see the trump qualities necessarily. I just see corrupt.
I mean, there’s been lots of mildly corrupt politicians - Trudeau’s certainly one. But I’ve never seen anyone as blatant as Ford. Right out there in the open, holding press meetings about it.
I see this less as a case of NIMBY and more of a case of greedy payback scheme by politicians
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So I googled it, Jared Keeso was born there. So that makes sense. His family owned a sawmill, and while browsing real estate in Listowel (that SNL skit about Zillow being the new porn hit me close to home) I saw a house on Keeso street, likely related.
I feel like it’s an option if I ever decide to jump ship, assuming Canada would let me in the door. If not, they can give their balls a tug, imo.
you could always move closer to the Upcountry Degens. bet the homes are cheaper there
That’s almost not worth thinking about.
Find a new island and start a new country that does everything right
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Most GTA jobs are not in downtown Toronto, there is a lot going on in Mississauga and other outer cities. Toronto has the finance, but there’s lots of other jobs in the ring.
Ottawa is now a tech city not just government.
Roads around the GTA are atrocious, it will severely impede further expansion.
The maritimes have extra homes, just need to shift some jobs over there.
ETA Mississauga has 428,000 jobs. http://www7.mississauga.ca/documents/business/2017/talent__employment.pdf
too many single family homes on Spadina imo
This is a good article/podcast on the history of the missing middle in Toronto. Sounds like not much progress on that front -
Interesting article on Toronto that is bang on. The sprawl is unbelievable because of the zoning and resulting absence of enough low level apartment buildings and multiplexes.
Vancouver is moving in the direction of Portland with its rezoning of single family homes and densification.
There is very much an East-West divide in zoning policy between Toronto and Vancouver.
Doug Ford reverses his stand and the Greenbelt Lands remain intact.
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His government previously justified the decision as part of a broader effort to address a mounting housing crisis in the province, promising to build at least 1.5m homes by 2031.
Now if he would only take on the NIMBYs and build that missing middle (freeing up inner-city single family home zones for low-rise apartments). I assume that won’t happen because the NIMBYs are his voting base.
At the end of the day it will largely come down to the municipalities to enable further densification. Ford’s party in its earlier housing report identified lots of opportunities.
California is trying to implement it at state level because at municipality level the NIMBYs always win.
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my town is trying to encourage more density and has changed zoning to allow duplexes and tris on what was previously only zoned for SFH. the SFH old timers are aghast.
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They should not be so aghast.
It is their density.
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Looks like British Columbia is implementing a partial ban on short-term rentals (AirBnBs) starting May 1st, 2024.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/short-term-rentals
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