What comes next for ‘generation screwed’?

Alexander Brown, Director of the National Citizens Coalition

Canadian under-40s can be forgiven for being too deflated to join in on the Carney coronation. One whole week into a new Liberal cabinet that looks a whole lot like the old one, and the spectre of Housing Minister Gregor Robertson already looms large.

With youth unemployment again hitting record-highs outside of pandemics and a tangible exit plan for millions of temporary foreign workers yet to be communicated to working-age Canadian citizens, Nate Erskine-Smith’s quick hook on the housing file, for one of the founding fathers of the Canadian housing crisis, former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, leaves much to be desired.

That Robertson immediately validated those concerns, by claiming that housing prices shouldn’t come down, as long as the government makes hundreds of thousands of public-housing units—a plan criticized by industry experts and layman alike as being rental-heavy, and more of the dog-crate-condo variety (which are now un-sellable on the real estate market)—couldn’t inspire less confidence.

This tone-deaf stance, his apparent refusal to understand basic principles of supply and demand, coupled with his track record of overseeing Vancouver’s affordability crisis, where the price of homes soared by over 179 percent on his watch, suggests the Liberals have no real plan to deliver on their promise to allow millions of young Canadians into the housing market for the very first time.

For those who can’t afford to wait years for another federal election, let’s hope these are growing pains for a cabinet truly committed to “transformative change” of the less-destructive variety, instead of what so far feels like another Brantford-Boomer middle finger.

This gets ugly, fast, if the status quo on housing continues. Good luck inspiring any displays of “elbows up” among a class of underemployed, forever renters.

Read in The Hub.