The Canadian government has recently shown promise with initiatives to increase the country’s housing supply. However, The City of Ottawa needs to co-operate to improve the cost of living crisis.
Canada has been strong-arming municipalities to increase density with its Housing Accelerator Fund. To receive funding, municipalities must adopt sweeping zoning reforms by eliminating single-family zoning. Because of this, laws that eliminate exclusionary zoning were passed in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and other cities.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says new zoning rules in the works should satisfy the federal government, despite not meeting the criteria of the accelerator fund.
A point of contention towards Mark Sutcliffe’s bylaw proposals is that they allow three units per lot. The Canadian government has pushed cities to allow four per lot so they could access the accelerator fund’s compensation.
Ottawa faced the highest cost of living increase in Ontario in 2023. Reports showed that Ottawa’s living wage has increased by 12 per cent this year to $21.95; largely due to increasing rental costs.
A promising initiative is the “recently announced” plan to build housing units on former government land. Canada Lands Company, a crown corporation, says they’re on track to build over 1,600 units on three different sites across Ottawa by March 2024.
The issue with this claim is that it isn’t a new initiative. Canada Lands acquired the three Ottawa properties in question years ago. These projects have already taken too long to address Ottawa’s housing needs.
According to a recent report, rental prices in Ottawa are ridiculously high. The vacancy rate, a good measure of the health of a rental market, is low. In a healthy market, the vacancy rate is around three per cent. The vacancy rate near Carleton in the Glebe and Old Ottawa South is only 0.7 per cent. This makes students’ lives difficult, as finding an adequate place and keeping up with rent can be difficult.
Out of the three Canada Lands projects, only 13.6 per cent of all the units will be deemed “affordable,” which is classified as costing less than 30 per cent of a household’s income. This is not enough by even the standard of 20 per cent affordable units the government set in the same press release.
While government incentives and converting old properties into housing is a step in the right direction, more should be done.
To build Ottawa out of its housing crisis, we need to be ambitious. The city, province and federal government should work together to create more affordable and non-market housing solutions — and fast.
Featured image from files.
