Reports and articles on housing
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Globe & Mail: Past governments didn’t work out how to pay for boomers’ retirement
Posted on News & Insights by Paul Kershaw · December 01, 2023 1:00 AMThe deficits announced in Ottawa’s fall economic statement remind us that previous governments never worked out how to pay for the healthy retirement of baby boomers. The personal finances of younger Canadians are collateral damage.
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Parties misdiagnose biggest changes in Fall Economic Statement
Posted on News & Insights by Paul Kershaw · November 24, 2023 12:52 PMFederal parties have misdiagnosed the biggest changes in 2023 Fall Economic Statement. Canada needs a federal task force on generational fairness to correct these misperceptions of federal finances.
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The Globe & Mail: Merit, luck or extraction? Revisiting the stories we tell about our financial status
Posted on News & Insights by Paul Kershaw · November 18, 2023 12:12 PMNobody likes to be challenged about whether they earned all that they have. Some get defensive when I talk about winning the “lottery of timing” by becoming a homeowner years ago, or when I raise concerns that younger Canadians inherit unaffordability and climate problems in which I’m partly implicated. Breaking through this defensiveness is necessary if Canada is to work once again for young and old alike.
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Intergenerational Fairness Day has arrived
Posted on News & Insights by Andrea Long · November 16, 2023 2:00 AMToday, November 16, 2023, is the first global Intergenerational Fairness Day. The urgent need to reverse the deteriorating well-being of younger and future generations stretches beyond Canada. Voices from the US, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Japan, Nigeria, and Australia as well as United Nations Foundation Next Generation Fellows have joined together to call on governments to preserve what is sacred – a healthy childhood, home, and planet – so that we can all be proud of the legacy we leave for those who follow.
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Five reasons Canada needs a Generational Fairness Task Force
Posted on News & Insights by Andrea Long · October 18, 2023 11:57 AMWe’ll never be able to fix today’s affordability, housing, medical care, and climate crises without understanding and resolving the intergenerational tensions at their core. Here are five impacts a federal Generational Fairness Task Force will have on key decisions made at Cabinet and Treasury tables.
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The Globe & Mail: Trudeau takes first step to break Canada’s addiction to rising home prices
Posted on News & Insights by Paul Kershaw · September 29, 2023 4:00 AMThe Prime Minister recently signalled a clarity of purpose for change in our housing system that has not existed in my lifetime. Housing should be for homes first, and investments second.
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The Conservative Housing Plan: Building homes isn’t enough for affordability
Posted on News & Insights by Andrea Long · September 28, 2023 11:51 AMThe CPC's plan for housing falls victim to ‘silver bullet’ thinking on housing, suggesting that building more homes will solve all of our problems. It’s a nice picture, and it sounds simple enough. The villains are clear — the fault lies with municipal ‘gatekeepers’ who unfairly stand in the way of development, or bureaucrats who line their own pockets while failing to do their jobs well. The rest of us are off the hook. Sadly, the answer just isn’t this easy.
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The Globe & Mail: We need a clear goal for home prices; not just a target for new builds
Posted on News & Insights by Paul Kershaw · September 26, 2023 3:00 AMWhile strong majority support should incline politicians to be honest about the need for home prices to stop rising, most dodge the topic. This is a big problem, because we can’t fix the housing crisis until we convince politicians it is politically safe for them to stand by this hard truth.
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Most Canadians know that stalling home prices is the path back to affordability
Posted on News & Insights by Andrea Long · September 19, 2023 11:44 AMIt would be nice if the solution to Canada’s housing crisis were as straightforward as ramping up supply. But it’s not. Happily, most Canadians seem to have a good grasp of what's needed to restore affordability.
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Trudeau: "House pricing can not continue to go up"
Posted on News & Insights by Megan Wilde · September 15, 2023 9:58 AMThe Prime Minister boldly acknowledging that house prices must stall strengthens all other housing policy commitments. Ambitious targets for building more homes do little good if we ignore the prices for which these homes will sell. Without deep subsidies funded by tax dollars, new market units will price in the rising land values that have already soared well beyond what most can afford to rent or buy with local earnings.
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