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These are views one can reasonably hold, as long as one believes that young people should sleep in their cars and that the border should be closed to stop the immigration that is driving housing demand in Ontario, particularly in Toronto.

Realistically, housing is a necessity, whether it is rented or owned. One would hope that governments would do what they could to make housing available and affordable for all. Instead, Ontarians looking for housing have had to contend with bad government policies stacked higher than a Queen’s Quay condo tower.

One would hope that governments would do what they could to make housing available and affordable for all

All three levels of government are guilty of hammering new apartment and housing developments with an array of taxes, fees and charges.

With apartment vacancy rates in Ontario at a 16-year low, the previous Liberal government discouraged new building by extending rent controls and presided over a planning approval process that could hold up new buildings for years.

The federal government, in its wisdom, decided that the problem with housing was not too little supply, but too much demand. It introduced an aggressive mortgage “stress test” that requires people to qualify for a mortgage at a rate higher than the one on offer. Not surprisingly, this has reduced the number of potential buyers.

Photo by James MacDonald/Bloomberg

Unfortunately, making it harder to buy a house does nothing to expand the supply of housing. That’s the problem that Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark is tackling with a multifaceted plan to make development easier and quicker.