The Capital Regional District proposal to borrow $85 million to be used towards affordable housing, is good intentions run amok.
If the CRD was actually interested in affordability rather than the optics of affordability, they would curtail their massive spending on unnecessary projects. Perhaps that would make homes more affordable when property taxes aren’t escalating at seven or eight per cent a year as has been the case recently.
Why not take that $85 million and underwrite mortgages for doctors newly arriving in the area. There would be an immediate return on the investment to all stakeholders. Directing $85 million to affordable housing is just a dog and pony show for politicians to make it feel like they’re doing something.
Affordable housing could be readily available in this province if the government would allow housing bonds to be sold to the general public and allow RRSP contributions to be paid into those housing bonds. Investors will get a decent secure return, and there would be less cost involved for the end-user be they a renter or a potential buyer.
This country is sitting on trillions of dollars in RRSPs doing nothing more than allowing banks to lend money to foreign entities. We’re taking the cream off of our disposable incomes and placing it in a padlocked box, so to speak. Let’s make our savings work for the people, not exclusively the banks.
Housing bonds and available government land could give us homes that would likely come in at less than half of the cost of existing single-family and multi-family structures. Affordable housing is only going to be affordable if we make it affordable, not just say it’s affordable. The CRD needs to go back to the drawing board.
Doug Coulson
Saanich
