The mistakes of the past are coming back to bite our politicians

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Canada’s vacancy rate for major office markets continues to rise, presently showing at 17.7%.   Many large corporations are leaving centers such as: Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver to reside in smaller communities with more financially friendly governments, taxes and an excess labor force.

At the same time, many municipalities are facing financial challenges brought on by excessive spending before and during the pandemic, using up their emergency funds to exhaustion levels. When it was good financially, these municipalities did not bank their excess funds, often investing in financial schemes that did not work out as planned. Toronto may well increase some of their taxes well over 10%. If land taxes increase these levels many overpriced homes may go onto the market, and those in the money may well relocate to friendlier municipalities nationwide.

Canada’s housing starts may have increased, but not to the levels politicians hoped for. With inflation and interest rates remaining higher than previously, those with homes were not prepared to sell. With the increase in municipal taxes in places like Toronto this exodus may well happen.

The Green Party of Ontario has come out with a plan to make housing starts increase in the province, but this plan speaks of a new form of housing, downscaled in size and price. Furthermore, it speaks of doing away with regulations and possibly amalgamating these regulations into softer costs for the purchasers of homes, while at the same time, protecting the province’s wetlands and farms. It seems obvious that a movement of the population will happen soon, where relocation of excess population must and will become popular in Ontario and also other jurisdictions as well. The Greens plan is in fact similar to the Ontario NDP’s.

Progressive Parties face undue influence and financially a powerful development and housing sector unwilling to change its ways of developing and selling its housing starts. The Political Parties of Ontario and most of Canada proclaim, “A Revolution in Housing,” but there is no revolution, and their claims are merely propaganda with no teeth.

Perhaps the only “revolution” we will see is the relocation of those with money to other jurisdictions, leaving cities like Toronto with an empty downtown core. This happened before and will surely happen again.

Too bad for politicians like: Mayor Chow, Doug Ford and even Justin Trudeau. The mistakes of the past are coming back to bite them.