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Justin Ling's avatar

Yeah, obviously, there's a whole jurisdictional can of worms, here. But Canada is not the only place to take a broader approach, here. Montana, e.g., up-zoned at the state level — as have some other states. Ditto for New Zealand.

Frankly, I think a high-level is the only place where you can do this work. Municipalities are behold to the people who already live there — there's no good political reason to consider hypothetical future residents.

This reality was reflected in post-WWII, when Ottawa embarked on a pretty aggressive plan to use the CMHC to build homes for veterans, under a rent-to-own scheme. It was probably not the purview of the federal government, but I don't think people really cared. Jurisdictional squabbles are secondary for most people, I think.

But you're quite right that this is local activism bubbling up.

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