What’s Behind Canada’s Housing Crisis

The evidence points to planning decisions, not global economics. The housing crisis didn’t just happen. Governments helped create it.

A real estate sign outside a home in Vancouver in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

Commentary

For years, federal ministers have offered Canadians a consoling explanation for why they cannot afford homes: housing has become unaffordable everywhere, a global phenomenon driven by pandemic disruptions, interest rates, and population growth spurred in large part by federal immigration targets.