Even a premier as wrong as Doug Ford can sometimes get it right. His government’s decision to change Toronto planning rules to allow taller buildings around transit hubs, especially subway stations, makes a lot of sense, especially in a city that has historically failed to capitalize on the obvious potential of connecting transit and density.

Toronto councillors and planners will scream bloody murder at yet another heavy-handed provincial intervention, but they’re more focused on protecting residential neighbourhoods even if that comes at the cost of the larger city.

Despite outrage from area Councillor Josh Matlow, there’s no more appropriate location for high-density development than the corner of Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. and beyond. But as those who remember the NIMBY rage that greeted the two Minto towers in the early 2000s know, no one benefitted more from the scheme than those who live and work around one of the busiest intersections in the city. If and when the Eglinton Crosstown is ever finished, the corner will be busier still.

The same thing happened a decade later when a 37-storey condo was proposed for the corner of Bloor St. and Bedford Rd. This time the anger came from some of the most distinguished denizens of the Annex, Jane Jacobs and Margaret Atwood among them. Eventually common sense prevailed, as it did at Yonge and Eglinton. After all uptown, midtown or downtown, adding density where subway lines converge is a transit no-brainer, regardless of what the neighbours say.

As poorly as Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark has performed, he is dead right when, as reported in the Globe and Mail, he says the city is misguided to limit growth at corners such as Bayview and Eglinton Aves. to eight storeys. If anything, Clark’s decision to increase heights to 20 or 35 storeys doesn’t go far enough. This is an intersection that includes a parking lot and strip mall, both space wasters given that a Crosstown station that will eventually open here.

But of course the neighbours like their backyards just the way they are. Yes, a subway — or at least an underground LRT — will be nice, but not if it means condo towers blocking the view. Instead of fighting the province on these changes, Toronto’s beleaguered mayor and his council allies should use the opportunity to bring the city a little closer to the modern age.

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Ford and his Progressive Conservatives are down to 22 per cent in the polls and make a very convenient target for Torontonians. The city should take advantage of the opportunity to break through the NIMBY barricades to introduce much needed density throughout the city. And when the shouting starts, blame Queen’s Park.

Besides, there’s nothing Toronto can do. Canada’s woefully inadequate constitution leaves cities at the mercy of the provinces. With someone like Ford in control, that’s bad news.

The real question is whether Clark’s plan will actually achieve its stated goal of creating more affordable housing. The answer, needless to say, is no, it won’t.

Discussion of the housing shortage has focused mainly on factors such as supply, construction technology and zoning, but in fact the issue is overwhelmingly one of economics. Now that real estate has been commodified, the affordability crisis has less to do with availability than return on investment. Talk about housing as a human right means nothing in a city where every homeowner is an asset-holder playing the market until the moment comes to cash in.

If the province wants more affordable housing, it’s time to reach into those deep pockets and ante up. Instead, it has lifted rent controls and, with Bill 108, largely handed urban planning and growth to the development industry. The message is clear; the Conservatives’ real motivation has more to do with rewarding its generous friends than concern for low-income Torontonians.

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If inclusionary zoning, something Clark told the Globe it plans to allow, is all it takes to launch another 1,000 condos where transit rolls then let it be so. Sadly, Ford’s developer friends won’t be thrilled to find they are building for the poor. Remember the fuss the Ford brothers raised when City Hall sponsored a handful of subsidized units in a waterfront condo? Until the public purse is opened in the form of incentives, tax breaks, writeoffs, whatever, affordable housing isn’t going to happen in Toronto.

In the meantime, treating density and transit as two sides of the same issue is smart even if it does come from a regime better known for being dumb. Sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Christopher Hume is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @HumeChristopher

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