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- cross-posted to:
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A year ago, the federal government instituted a foreign buyer ban after passing the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act in 2022. The two-year ban, which came into effect on Jan. 1, barred non-citizens, non-permanent residents and foreign controlled companies from buying up Canadian property as an investment.
But Wallace says that ban didn’t do much for her family.
“There’s all of these very luxurious buildings going in all around us that are outrageously priced,” said Wallace, after attending an open house at a promising $1.1-million condo. “The foreign buyers tax … I don’t think that’s making an iota of difference.”
Critics say the foreign buyers ban, which was aimed at making housing affordable for Canadians, had many exemptions and was more of a political manoeuvre. They say it’s clear housing remains out of reach for too many in Canada, and that the country should look to other places in the world to find strategies to foster home ownership.
Plus building density encourages transit, which is more economically and energy effecient than everyone driving. Even if everyone is in an EV, electrified transit is still more effecient.
I would phrase that even more strongly: trying to design cities to accommodate cars is utterly disastrous, and would still be so even if they ran on pixie dust and emitted nothing but unicorn farts.
The biggest problem isn’t even pollution or energy efficiency; it’s just the sheer amount of space cars waste (in terms of both wide streets and parking lots)! Allowing the presence of cars to destroy walkability – and make no mistake: accommodating cars and having any other transportation mode (walking, biking, transit) be viable are mutually-exclusive – has all sorts of knock-on negative effects, up to and including increasing obesity (because walkable cities help keep people fit) and harming mental health (because Euclidean zoning often makes it illegal to build “Third Places” near housing).
Its almost as if most roadway design theory is based on stuff they made up in the 60s off no real data other than wanting to sell The American Dream