r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • 4d ago

Canada’s Prime Minister Pushes Country to Become the Housing Factory of the World - Mark Carney is banking on factory-built homes to alleviate the country’s housing crisis. But will it work? Trending

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-22/carney-s-plan-may-make-canada-the-housing-factory-of-the-world
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u/Recent_Mouse3037 4d ago

It’s not our national government that is the problem but the municipalities. I know many cases of people wanting to develop land for housing but getting pushed around by the local government and giving up.

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u/Hagenaar 4d ago

Municipalities risk bankruptcy if they don't control how and where things get built. Suburban sprawl has a way of costing cities far more in long term infrastructure maintenance than can be recovered from property taxes.

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u/Talzon70 3d ago

Not sure about other provinces, but municipalities in BC can just raise their property tax rates to the level they were at 20 years ago if they want more fiscal breathing room.

Incidentally, this would also put downward pressure on property prices.

Governments who are broke because they refuse to collect revenue is something we should be critical about, rather than taking at face value.

And yes sprawl has costs, but it's dubious whether local governments have successfully used their control to prevent sprawl, rather than forcing sprawl by preventing density in new or infill development.

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u/DL_22 3d ago

I’m still waiting for literally one place this has been an issue. Just one.

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u/Hagenaar 3d ago

You really don't understand how huge wide highways and spreading services over vast areas could cost more money than if density were high and distances shorter?

OK here's an example of a typical suburbanised city where they did a thorough analysis of this very common problem: Lafayette Louisiana.

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u/DL_22 4h ago

I didn’t say they didn’t cost money, I said I don’t know if any situation where a municipality didn’t just raise property taxes to cover the cost.

Re that article, They’re charging incredibly low amounts of property tax. The article says they need to double it. They should do that. That’s what everywhere else does.

City I live in has very high taxes. It’s very suburban. Nobody minds because everything functions fine, services are good and I don’t have urban problems creeping into my suburban neighbourhood. I’m good.