Attempts to contain ‘urban sprawl’ have driven land prices sky-high. It’s time to abandon densification strategies.
Wendell Cox
Costly Construction Isn’t the Culprit Behind Unaffordable Housing. Costly Land Is
The latest Demographia report on housing affordability in Canada, which I produce for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, reveals that over half of the 46 Canadian housing markets we assess are severely unaffordable. In fact, Vancouver and Toronto rank as third and...
Over 20 Canadian Housing Markets Are “Severely Unaffordable”
BNN Bloomberg
The Work from Home Revolution: Data and Policy Implications
The rise of remote and hybrid work has brought about a significant shift in how people access employment opportunities, reducing the need for physical commuting. This article examines the latest data for major metropolitan areas in the United States (with over one...
Featured News
There’s Nothing Fair About Canadian Health Care
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
New Report Highlights Housing Affordability Challenges Across Canada
WINNIPEG Oct 11, 2023 – The Frontier Centre for Public Policy's Demographia Housing Affordability in Canada report, released today, cast a spotlight on the pressing issue of housing affordability in Canada. This comprehensive report offers a detailed analysis of...
2023 Edition Of Demographia Housing Affordability In Canada
Supplement to Demographia International Housing Affordability: 2023
Improving Transportation Access and the Economy in Winnipeg
The debate continues about the Route 90 expansion (Kenaston Boulevard) and whether it is a good investment for Winnipeg. Some arguments have been tabled to the extent that there is no use in expanding highways, or that transit would be better, or that nothing should...
Downside of Calgary Downtown Residential Conversions?
The Calgary Herald reports that some office tenants are being forced out of their buildings in the city of Calgary’s program to convert office buildings to residential uses. We had covered this program recently, noting that “that the City has adopted an aggressive...
“It is absolutely impractical”
Cox: Downtown Rethink
This article entitled People in Toronto won't stop working from home and it's impacting the city paints a relatively negative picture about downtown prospects - noting that Toronto office vacancy rates have just hit their highest level since 1995. Looks like the...
Calgary City Council: Reimagining the CBD
In a previous post, I commented on the difficulties faced by the Calgary CBD (downtown), with its huge office vacancies resulting from the mid-decade oil bust, along with the rise of remote and hybrid working accelerated by the pandemic. Calgary (metropolitan area...
Demographia International Housing Affordability – 2023 Edition Released
Demographia International Housing Affordability rates middle-income housing affordability in 94 major housing markets in eight nations: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. This edition covers the third...
Canadians on the Move, to Smaller Communities
The Canadian Dream is increasingly being realized in smaller areas For decades, Canadians moved to the larger cities (census metropolitan areas, or CMAs) with their economic opportunities. The latest estimates indicate that CMAs have 72 per cent of the nation’s...