John Robson: Feds’ Rapid Housing Plan Will Still Move at a Snail’s Pace, Despite an Additional $1.5 Billion

A construction worker shingles the roof of a new home in a housing development in Ottawa in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Commentary

From the news releases I receive, particularly from the PMO, I gather that the government has both the will and the capacity to bring enormous benefits to me, my fellow citizens, and indeed the inhabitants of the entire globe. Alas, from the news stories I receive, particularly about the PMO, a rather different picture emerges. Like they can’t even build a house, which shouldn’t be especially challenging after literally hundreds of thousands of years of humans adding shelter to clothing and food.

Take the Rapid Housing Initiative… please. In case you missed it, it’s a $2.5 billion program (first two rounds alone), so just peanuts to the feds, established in 2020 to build affordable housing nationwide, fast. Or rather to fund cities and non-profits doing so. Not people who build them for a living, apparently; what would they know?

Whereas the feds know rapid. Approved “units” (a.k.a. “places to live”) had to be built within 12 months or, if remote, 18. Cool. The news story said it was meant to benefit, among others, “those experiencing homelessness” (a.k.a. “the homeless”).

So what happened? Not the sound of hammers and power tools across the land, certainly. Nor even of reports, until an MP’s written question pried loose that round one ending March 2021 led to 4,792 “units” approved for funding, and another 5,473 in round two ending March 2022. Just over 10,000 would hardly make a dent in the housing problem Ottawa is rapidly worsening by bringing in half a million newcomers a year at 100,000 “units” per family of five, even if the number completed rather than merely approved were 10,265 not, drum roll please, just 1,449. (Rimshot please.)

So they’re chucking in another $1.5 billion. I mean, what the heck.

Here I want to quote Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Traveller” about “How small, of all that human hearts endure, / That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!” Then for contrast a couple of PMO press releases.

One said, “They will explore opportunities to support and advocate for sustainable solutions to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the situation in Iran” plus “cooperation around accountable governance, trade and economic growth, women’s economic empowerment, energy, and defence.” They being, um, our prime minister and Jordan’s King. Though if either knows of, say, sustainable solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I’m surprised they didn’t already tell us.

Another informed me the Governor General is jetting off to Finland for meetings that will “offer an opportunity to advance important global issues, such as peace, support for democracy, and climate change.” Such as, you say? There’s more? Yes. As with the PM’s tweet: “After wrapping up our Cabinet retreat yesterday, we’re kicking off Caucus meetings in Ottawa today. We’ll be focused on making your life more affordable, strengthening health care, fighting climate change, building an economy that works for all Canadians, and more.” More. After lunch, world peace. To infinity and beyond.

Here you might decide the PM unscrupulously employs an army of unscrupulous young people to write saccharine nonsense for him. But actually he’s perfectly sincere in his conviction, undented by experience, that even supposedly major problems are easily resolved if you have sufficient goodwill, which he knows he has by introspection. (And which explains his sharp tone when criticized, since by definition whoever opposes goodwill must be filled with the other kind.)

If it were just one politician, you’d never have heard of him except perhaps vaguely as, “Didn’t Pierre’s cute kid became a teacher or something?” But Trudeau incarnates a particular vision of public policy, one that exasperates many of us because it does not merely fail the test of practicality but scorns to write it.

U.S. President Lyndon Johnson apocryphally wished the “Best and the Brightest” egghead advisers he inherited from JFK had at least run a corner store. Just as we might wonder what the recent massive expansion of the civil service and its parastatal consulting class was about if our government still can’t buy a ship, balance a budget, or vet an appointee. But as always, if someone says and does things you don’t agree with, you can bet they think things you don’t agree with.

Take Trudeau’s “Just Transition”… please. Supposedly the feds, having bungled every file from emissions reductions to military procurement to fiscal restraint for decades, will now totally redesign our economy in a few months, abracadabra. Just like that Australian politician about to redesign capitalism and get it right after centuries of inefficient oppression… again.

Mind you they struggle to hand out pieces of paper promising money if someone else builds a house, even to people who then don’t. But they think governing is dead simple if you just care enough, and tell us so at every opportunity.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.