Federal, Vancouver governments to announce housing strategies
Posted November 22, 2017 6:48 am.
Last Updated November 22, 2017 8:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The federal government is set to release a strategy today aimed at putting more roofs over people’s heads, the same day Vancouver unveils it’s own housing plan.
As far as Vancouver is concerned, Simon Fraser University city program director Andy Yan predicts a series of policies that deal with foreign buyers, the issue of zoning for ownership or rentals, transportation, and other goodies to impress voters ahead of the looming civic election.
The struggle nationally, he says, is to find a one-size-fits-all approach that works for urban and rural communities from Vancouver to St. John’s Newfoundland.
“This is a means of touching to that reality of people who are lifelong renters, on top of those who really are going to be renters, whether they like it or not, for the rest of their lives, and this is a means of mitigating the effects of high rents,” Yan says.
“You see a place like British Columbia now, being more dependant on real estate than Alberta is on oil… what does that mean toward the kind of federal types of intervention that can occur in housing compared to what the provinces are going to have to do?”
He adds the federal government is challenged to solve issues in urban, suburban, rural, remote communities, and First Nation’s reserves with a blanket strategy that covers many different economies.
Both housing plans are expected to be released at 11:45 a.m. today.
