The parallel housing journeys Mexico and Canada have been on since the 1990s are now diverging. Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has shown that another path is possible. Canada’s misguided strategies, built around supporting financial and real estate industries, are not our only option. We can draw inspiration from Mexico’s decision to actively restructure its housing system.
See, when Carney was campaigning on making Build Canada Homes, releasing the design guidelines and all, I really did believe that he would appoint contractors to make new federally managed housing units for people. The most cost-efficient contractors with good quality workmanship could be brought on as part of the crown corp itself. When it became more like a stripped down CMHC, I cooled on it.
Avi Lewis should really publicize these many cases where left-wing governments are capable of getting things done, in Mexico, Europe and elsewhere, to point out it’s not just a coffee shop fantasy to achieve big things for people, rather than the elite class’ benefit.