On a daily basis, municipalities do their part to try to solve this housing crisis.
Earlier, I mentioned the current housing accelerator fund. It basically helps address some planning, approval and permitting issues within municipalities, which is something great. However, before this program, municipalities started to streamline approval to make sure units could get built.
The numbers we're seeing right now in some jurisdictions.... For example, in B.C., Victoria and Vancouver had the highest number of units permitted in the third quarter of 2023.
Municipalities are on the line with the resources they have right now, but the existing fiscal model for municipalities in Canada is broken. This is why FCM is calling on the federal government to convene provinces, territories and municipalities to look at this and redefine what the right approach is to make sure population growth and economic growth can be a success.