Strengthening Property Rights Part of the Answer to Canada’s Housing Crunch | Epoch Times | Joseph Quesnel, Frontier Centre for Public Policy:
August 1, 2023 - "Housing is a big issue for Canadians.... A poll from Ipsos in the spring [of 2023] showed that about 63 out of every 100 Canadians who don’t own a house have given up on ever getting one. Almost seven out of 10 said that only rich people can afford to own homes.... Canadians may not understand how property rights — or, in many cases, the lack thereof — play a part in the housing shortage, and how robust property rights can help alleviate the problem.
"The recently released Canadian Property Rights Index from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy identified how local laws that control how people can use their land are a major cause for concern across Canada. These laws, known as 'regulatory takings,' can be very limiting. Regulatory or 'constructive' takings refer to local land use or zoning laws that limit how individuals may use their land. Many jurisdictions, provinces, and municipalities in Canada have such laws, with the most restrictive coming from the provinces. As a result, this land can’t be used for building houses.
"Excluding land from development and urban growth puts upward pressure on housing prices. There is a clear connection between urban containment policies and housing affordability. 'Urban containment' is a name for policies that limit the spread of cities and clearly separate city and country land. Wendell Cox, author of the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, has documented how these policies affect housing affordability in all cities around the world.... Policies that limit or ban the development of unused land push up the cost of land and housing. This is certainly not confined to Canada....
"British Columbia and Ontario offer two case studies.
- Since the 1970s, B.C. has maintained an Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) as a land use exclusion zone. Designed to protect valuable agricultural land and protect the public from food insecurity, the exclusion zone has created problems for municipalities seeking to grow to accommodate growing populations.... Even though the ALR only covers about five percent of B.C.’s total land, its rules have blocked the housing and development needs of communities.
- In the case of Ontario’s Greenbelt, cynical critics are more often focused on who wants to develop the land than the fact that municipalities are being squeezed and feel that certain lands need to be excluded from the Greenbelt if they are to meet the housing and development needs of their communities.
"Experience with urban containment policies in the United States might serve as an inspiration. Facing housing affordability issues, many states have seen pushback against such policies. States such as Colorado, with more robust democratic systems that allow for referenda and citizen initiatives, rejected overly restrictive urban containment policies and favoured the property rights of land users. Canadians across all provinces and territories should also push back, stop demonizing land developers, and begin to recognize their property rights so we can solve our housing problems."
Canadian Property Rights Index 2023: https://fcpp.org/2023/07/17/canadian-property-rights-index-2023/
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