What a wonderful treat to feast on @GraphicMatt #TOCouncil thread as a catch up on today’s local democracy. Uplifted by Denise A-C’s much deserved appointment & boost to school food program. Endlessly amused by some of the hilarious colour commentary. Thank you Matt!

Oops… new platforms, new addresses. Keep going on the clean energy, our planet needs it!

Great show, really good stuff.

The more I think of it, the better this “war” sounds!

But what if the “war” went deeper. Like: rules of the road = rules of the car. Use tech to match car speed to road rules. Use tech to determine insurance liability. Use tech to determine impairment.

Would we use technology to instantly ticket and war against breaking the rules of speeding, red lights and… wait… hold thy breath… stopping at a stop sign (the horror!).

Would we adopt a warring mindset to tow illegally parked cars in major thoroughfares without milling about blocking a lane for an hour to see if anyone shows up?

Interesting… what if we actually did launch a “war on the car” as ridiculous as that sounds. What would it actually look like?

Happy National Housing Day!

Let’s collaborate! www.linkedin.com/posts/habita...

And also options for the majority of Canadians who dream of owning a home. Including scrapping the GST on new affordable home ownership builds. And ensuring housing programs embrace a full ecosystem approach. Not more of the same.

We don’t need more of the same. We need more. And of all kinds. Housing benefits to address homelessness now and eliminate core housing need. Investments in social/nonprofits/coops. Money for private developers to build/repair rental…

3. Many Canadians want to buy a house eventually. You can tell them they are wrong, the world has changed and (worst of all) it’s more cost effective to build rental than to help them realize their dreams so get over it. Good luck with that.

I want to acknowledge the passing of the legendary Ken Battle this week. Together w colleagues at Caledon, they birthed the child tax benefit, “relentless incrementalism”, and helped some of us give our heads a shake, look at building projections & federalism & tune into a housing benefit mindset.

So we keep over-indexing on private, purpose built rental… and we get stuck in a “units built” KPI mindset… and Canadians are left wondering if and when they will get some support in their lifetime.

… Having seen lots of policy work on housing benefits over decades, it’s absolutely possible to eliminate core housing need fast & effectively. But you gotta have courage to integrate income security w housing policy…and the housing world has an allergy called: silo’d either/or thinking.

2. IMHO the most likely options to meet immediate & medium term housing costs are housing benefits and/or rent controls. I’ll leave rent controls to others….

1. Current rent supply emphasis is admirable. It’s deep. But let’s be honest, it’s also narrow. It’s narrow because it dominates but can’t offer at-scale solutions anytime soon. Eventually, maybe, building lots of private rental will trickle down. Let’s not stop. But let’s not just do this either.