Roundup: Ford’s inaction on housing

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While so much of the focus in Ontario over the past few days has (deservedly) been about Doug Ford’s plan to send $200 cheques to everyone ahead of an early election call in order to buy votes (rather than doing anything about healthcare, education, universities, crumbling infrastructure, you name it), it has obscured from the reports that Ontario is not only badly missing its housing targets—it’s getting worse.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1851725607408742526

Housing is very much a provincial responsibility. That is the level of government that has the tools and the levers to affect housing, whether it’s legislating the zoning changes that cities are reluctant to engage in, or using their spending powers to build or repair social housing (like they’ve been promising to since the late eighties), or any number of things. Is Ford doing any of it? Nope. Are they banning municipalities from forcing excessive development charges that are raising the cost of housing? Nope. Are they doing absolutely anything other than trying to pad their housing numbers with long-term care beds? Nope. But instead, all of the blame continues to be put on Justin Trudeau for the housing situation, never mind that he has vanishingly few levers at his disposal (and when he points that out, every media outlet in the country freaks out and insists that he must somehow create some, because reasons).

Meanwhile, as Pierre Poilievre promises to cut two of the existing federal housing programmes to fund his GST cut on new houses under $1 million, here’s Mike Moffatt explaining why those programmes are necessary and why they should be adjusted and not cut, not that Poilievre is going to listen.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1851933649723105344

Ukraine Dispatch

The death toll from the Russian strike on a high-rise in Kharkiv have risen, and children are among the dead. Russians also attacked a strategic bridge in the Odesa region overnight. American intelligence indicates that there are now 8,000 North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region, and that they are expected to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days. President Zelenskyy has blasted allies’ “zero” response to the arrival of these North Korean troops.

Good reads:

  • From the Ukraine victory plan conference in Montreal, Justin Trudeau said that the longer the Russian invasion continues, the worse the outcomes globally.
  • Mélanie Joly got 45 countries to sign onto an agreement to help coordinate efforts to identify and create pathways for captured Ukrainian children to return home.
  • The government spent the day crowing that 1 million Canadians have now accessed the federal dental care programme, with new expansions about to be rolled out.
  • After many security-related delays, Speaker Fergus led a parliamentary delegation to Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) earlier this month.
  • Conservatives pulled out of a Parliament Hill Diwali celebration their members have been organizing since Deepak Obhrai started 24 years ago, and won’t say why.
  • The Quebec government has frozen two immigration streams that grant permanent residency, citing the usual “threat to French language and culture” excuses.
  • Danielle Smith tabled three separate anti-trans bills in the Alberta legislature.
  • This weekend is the UCP’s convention, where Smith will face a leadership review.
  • The BC Métis Nation has removed itself from the Métis National Council citing governance issues, as the National Council continues to disintegrate.

Odds and ends:

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