25 Bold, Entirely Doable Ways To Make Canada Affordable Again

It's an election year and, for once, all our federal party leaders agree on something: Canada is in the throes of a debilitating housing crisis that's wreaking political, economic and societal havoc.

- ALI AMAD, ALYANNA DENISE CHUA

Forget buying a home-even rents are unaffordable for most Canadians. Where our politicians differ is on how to fix it. Pierre Poilievre wants to cut fees and taxes for building new homes, while the Liberals are offering cities millions of dollars to densify. Our response: all of the above, please. In fact, we've assembled 25 smart, surprising, common-sense solutions that will help us build homes fast, lower prices and cool down our blazing market. Some are futuristic, such as robot construction workers or massive 3D printers extruding entire houses. Others tackle big-picture policy, like how to fill labour shortages and free up more land for development. The one thing they have in common: they're all absolutely achievable.

CASE STUDY

Build Tiny Homes Fast

In a parking lot in Gatineau, Quebec, a village of candy-hued shipping containers is pointing the way out of the homelessness crisis

BETWEEN 2018 AND 2022, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Outaouais region of Quebec shot up dramatically, leaving more than 700 people unhoused. Rock-bottom vacancy rates and the highest rents in Quebec converged to create an unprecedented crisis. As shelters overflowed, tent encampments mushroomed in parks throughout Gatineau, the largest city in the region.

In the fall of 2023, two people died at one encampment. That prompted Gatineau land developer Devcore Group to install 48 heated tents on a nearby hockey arena parking lot to get people out of the cold. The next year, Devcore upped its game. In collaboration with a non-profit called Transitiôn Québec, it transformed the site into one of Canada's largest tiny-home communities, Village Transitiôn, on land donated by the city.

Just in time for Christmas, the first residents moved in. Today the site is a small village made up of 45 orange, mintgreen and white shipping containers, with more on the way.