This text is part of the special section Municipalities
In the cities of Terrebonne and Mascouche, in Lanaudière, the housing shortage has reached new records. Only 0.1% of private rental housing was unoccupied in 2021 in the MRC, according to the most recent data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). And this situation is far from being an exception in the country.
“In Canada, we have observed very strong population growth in recent years, but we have observed that construction has not kept pace with population growth,” notes Jean-François Perrault, Chief Economist at the Scotiabank. We are talking about a deficit [de logements] Very important. We are talking about tens or hundreds of thousands of units [manquantes] depending on the city. There has been a marked under-investment in social housing, continues the expert. This is a problem that will take several years to resolve. »
The federal government recently announced an investment of $4 billion over five years to create 100,000 new homes across the country. In February, the UMQ, for its part, adopted the Municipal Declaration on Housing, which proposes courses of action for the Government of Quebec, such as the deployment of a new program of 4,500 new social housing units per year in the province. The theme of the housing shortage will also occupy an important part of the UMQ meeting, which will be held on May 12 and 13, with the grand forum Housing first. Between affordability, accessibility and equity.
According to Jean-François Perrault, who is one of the forum’s panelists, municipalities have a leading role to play in resolving the crisis. “Building new housing is essentially a matter of municipal responsibility. We talk about regulations, the speed with which things are approved, zoning rules. So the big brake on construction is more at the municipal level than at other levels of government,” observes the man who notes that pressure against real estate development is often exerted by citizens on elected municipal officials. “We don’t want to have residential towers next to a house, we don’t want to have more traffic, we don’t want to have all kinds of things, illustrates the economist. If there was this desire to accept more people (into one’s neighborhood), it would be easier to accommodate population growth. »
Reduce bias
In the city of Mascouche, in fact, Mayor Guillaume Tremblay and his team are working hard to solve the great housing shortage in their municipality. “At the local level, we have our foot in the floor to have more affordable housing and social housing with the densification of the sectors”, says the man who plans the construction of 6,500 new housing units on the territory by 2040.
The City of Mascouche is in the process of revising its urban plan, rejoices the mayor. Including a citizen consultation, the new plan will be in force from 2023. Several regulations could thus be relaxed, illustrates Mr. Tremblay, concerning the enlargement of houses or the narrowing of spaces between buildings. The Mayor of Mascouche also proposes to give the City the right of first refusal, allowing it to acquire properties at the same prices and conditions as those contained in an offer to purchase in order to create social housing.
“The crisis is such that we have to “get out of the box” of everything we are used to [de faire], believes Guillaume Tremblay. We must allow cities to deploy quickly, to demonstrate innovation in terms of housing, to review urban planning rules. But we may have to agree, collectively, to have social, affordable housing,” notes the mayor, who is proposing a promotional campaign to reduce prejudice against social housing.
Labor shortage
“Now, my wish is that the Quebec government work very quickly in collaboration with the federal government to ensure that we have these sums as soon as possible for our groups that provide affordable housing,” argues Guillaume Tremblay.
Finally, another problem also looms on the horizon. Even if funds are injected into the construction industry, who will build all this housing with the labor shortage?
“As in other industries, there is a labor shortage in the construction industry,” observes Jean-François Perrault. Even if we wanted to accelerate the pace of construction markedly, is it possible? We can at least try, he replies, by training people in the field of construction and by rethinking policies in the field of immigration to favor people who have skills in the field of construction. »