My question is about speed and how long it takes to get a house built in Canada. The Building Industry and Land Development Association in Toronto says that it can take as much as seven years from idea to shovel in the ground. They also say that government costs amount to $185,000 per unit of housing in Toronto proper.
Municipal leaders keep telling us they need more government money for housing, but the same municipal and provincial leaders have piled on so much regulation and so many inefficiencies and delays that they, in a lot of cases, are the ones driving up the cost of housing in the first place.
Does anyone want to comment on the damage these regulations do, particularly to poor and disadvantaged people who would love to be part of the private housing market but can't afford it because of the cost of government?