09/30/2016
Mayors warn Trudeau he needs to take aim at housing prices
The B.C. and federal governments waited too long to address the out-of-control real-estate prices in Vancouver and Toronto, and the market is pushing out families, says Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Middle-class Canadians being able to buy a house in Vancouver and Toronto, those days have probably passed because the interventions didn’t come,” he said. Canada’s big-city mayors are meeting in Toronto today and are expected to focus on housing. The federal government says its second phase of infrastructure spending – the massive stimulus that was a key Liberal election promise last year – is coming this fall, and will contain billions for affording housing. In a joint op-ed for The Globe, Toronto Mayor John Tory and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson lay out their seven principles for fixing the housing crisis.
