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> We’re also the second largest country in the world (behind Russia) for land area yet it’s almost impossible to build housing in this country. Maybe a pedanti
by jszymborski 3y ago
> We’re also the second largest country in the world (behind Russia) for land area yet it’s almost impossible to build housing in this country.
Maybe a pedantic point, but it's HN after all:
Canada has always been sparsely populated but for a narrow band along the Canada/US border. This is due to a number of factors, not least of which is the climate of most of that area.
Now, certainly the unaffordability crisis is arguably largly due to policy choices of this and previous gov'ts, but Canada's land mass is not really a huge part of this equation.
- js8 3y agoMaybe a sarcastic point, HN be damned: I heard Canadian government is also working on climate change, so they are apparently trying to make more land amenable to housing. (Although it's not clear whether the land gain won't be countered by sea level rise.)
- Teever 3y agoI think you know that this 'narrow band' is far larger than most people can conceive of.
- jszymborski 3y agoAll I'm saying is that Canada being the second largest land mass is not super relevant to the discussion of housing affordability.
- Teever 3y agoIt is if you're not being pedantic and you can acknowledge that the fraction of that land mass that is habitable is still huge and connected to infrastructure that would facilitate further expansion.
- chongli 3y agoAvailable space is a necessary but not sufficient condition for affordable housing. If I were living in Hong Kong then I’d cut the government some slack for housing being unaffordable. Here in Canada though? It’s absurd how much space we have and yet we can’t get anything done. This emphasizes the degree of government dysfunction, which was my original point.