[Bunk]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I see a huge wrong in Nenshi saying that. That's the problem with Nenshi on and on and on again. Populism is not good government, never is. Provision of subsidized housing options is up to the City of Calgary with the funding assistance from the Province. Period. He has ZERO stance criticizing landlords, not in the anecdotal sense nor in general, as he did last week. The City does not help landlords, nor does it help renters; therefore, it has no right to offer opinions on what's fair and what's not fair. Especially, so blatantly wrong and broad brush opinions.

Most landlords are buying properties with a 25-yr mortgage and returning 5% on their investment capital after all expenses paid. This is not gouging anyone. They are just trying to keep up with the market and costs of property holding. Are there bad landlords? Yes, just like there are bad teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, developers, city workers etc. It is not Mayor's job to profess casual accusations against industries. His job is to lead City Council in achieving good municipal governance, which he has not been very good at so far, unfortunately.

Affordable housing is NOT primarily the role of the City. It's the Province. City of Calgary has a role through CHC as a landlord and limited programs through OLSH, but it's not primarily the City's responsibility. It doesn't help that the Province has virtually stopped funding housing programs as part of the ten year plan to end homelessness. There simply isn't any money flowing. If we want to massively increase affordable housing through City sources, we have to massively increase property taxes, which we can see will only get the City accusations of gouging taxpayers.

Second - Again, where did the Mayor accuse a whole industry?

Ask home builders what the city's policy of increasing urban development at the expense of suburban growth has done, and they'll tell you it's created the housing crunch they predicted long ago. No matter how much the city may try to force condo living on the masses, people will want yards. Without new development farther out, this increases the cost of the houses that already exist (or moves people to outlying areas where they don't pay for Calgary city services). This further puts lower income homeowners into the condo market, which takes away from the rental market, putting people into the Drop-In Centre.

There is no policy to "increase urban development at the expense of suburban development. The City will enable both through policy and infrastructure, and the market will decide. The City adhere's to its policy of a minimum planned and serviced land supply in suburban communities.

The homebuilders that are having trouble finding lots tend to blame the City, but it's really the vertically integrated Mattamy's of the industry that are causing them the problems they find themselves in. The fact is that housing starts are at a record level in this city.

Originally Posted by Regorium

I'm a bit surprised at Nenshi here. Generally he makes very smart statements and will show very strong understanding of whatever topic he's trying to talk about.

But this is just absolutely crazy. Doesn't understand how his own policies have created a housing shortage (I agree with those policies - I'm a latte-sipper). Doesn't understand a market economy.
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How have his policies created a housing shortage exactly?