Barj S. Dhahan: Hovering housing prices are inflicting widespread struggling

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Canada’s housing affordability disaster has been 30 years within the making.

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Whereas Prime Minister Trudeau pretends that the excessive price of housing isn’t a federal downside, Ottawa’s immigration, worldwide pupil and housing insurance policies are key contributors to the dramatic rise in rents and the common worth of housing previously few years.

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Provincial and municipal governments have added to the disaster by way of their neglect to plan for the arrival of excessive numbers of immigrants and worldwide college students, particularly within the Metro Vancouver and Toronto areas.

Instant motion is required together with long-term collaborative nationwide and provincial housing, immigration and worldwide pupil insurance policies.

Beginning within the Seventies, the federal assist for purpose-built rental housing declined dramatically. In 1970, 25 per cent of all housing development was federally assisted reasonably priced rental housing.

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By the mid-Nineteen Nineties and onward, solely about three per cent of annual housing development was federally assisted reasonably priced housing. The development of latest reasonably priced rental items grew to become largely non-existent.

Since 2010, general annual housing development completions have averaged about 225,000 items whereas the variety of immigrants, refugees, short-term international staff and worldwide college students quickly elevated. The housing provide didn’t match the rising demand.

In 2011 Premier Clark introduced the B.C. Worldwide Scholar Technique with the aim of doubling the variety of international college students by 2016.

Prime Minister Harper’s 2014 complete worldwide schooling technique was designed to draw extra worldwide college students.

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In 2018, Ontario up to date its Worldwide Put up Secondary Schooling Technique, inviting international college students “to use to its 23 publicly assisted universities, 24 faculties and greater than 500 registered personal profession faculties and establishments.”

For the reason that mid-2000s, provincial governments have been decreasing or freezing funding to post-secondary establishments and inspiring them to recruit extra international college students.

Each B.C. and Ontario lately have capped tuition charges for home college students, with no caps on charges for worldwide college students.

Thus, an enormous influx of international college students has occurred.

In 2022, over 550,000 international college students arrived in Canada.

Immediately, there are greater than 800,000, with 411,000 in Ontario, 164,000 in B.C., 93,000 in Quebec and 43,000 in Alberta.

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Publicly funded post-secondary establishments and the rising variety of personal profession institutes in B.C. and Ontario seized upon the chance to recruit an ever-growing variety of worldwide college students, charging them 4 to 6 instances the common tuition charges paid by home college students.

The College of B.C. has 19,909 worldwide college students accounting for 27 per cent of the entire pupil inhabitants.

Nevertheless, they account for about 60 per cent of the entire tuition charges earned by UBC this yr.

Not one of the main B.C. and Ontario publicly funded universities and faculties have satisfactory on-campus housing to accommodate their international college students. UBC, SFU and UVic have solely a complete of 17,200 on-campus housing areas however collectively have 30,149 worldwide college students.

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The College of Toronto has 27,000 international college students with solely 8,124 student-housing areas.

Many international college students at the moment are struggling to seek out reasonably priced lodging.

In 2022, immigrant arrivals jumped to 492,000 from 226,309 in 2021. Within the first quarter of this yr, 145,417 immigrants landed in Canada and the inhabitants elevated by 292,232 folks.

Merely put, Canada isn’t capable of present reasonably priced housing to multiple million immigrants, international college students and short-term staff arriving yearly. Everyone seems to be struggling as a consequence of fast-rising housing prices.

Ottawa can instantly cut back the variety of immigrants to 300,000 yearly and put a pause on issuing additional examine visas for international college students.

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Provincial governments can cease approving new personal profession coaching faculties which can be recruiting giant numbers of international college students for short-term programs at excessive charges.

Within the long-term, federal and provincial governments have to align housing insurance policies with the variety of immigrants and worldwide college students coming to Canada.

Public universities and faculties needs to be required to offer on-campus housing for his or her worldwide college students.

And all governments should start to fund development of latest purpose-built reasonably priced housing.

Barj S. Dhahan is govt director of the Canada-India Schooling Society.

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