In one of the last pre-budget announcements, the federal government delivered their overall housing plan for 2024, which was a mixture of previously made announcements over the past couple of weeks, with a few more added in—such as plans to lease and not sell public land—to offer a more complete picture of the things that they are doing as a federal government to “unlock” the construction of hundreds of thousands of homes. And I am going to make the point that the term “unlocked” is interesting and deliberate, while most media outlets keep using the term “build” incorrectly, because they’re not saying they’re going to build x-number of units, because they have no way to actually guarantee that because they have very few levers at their disposal to actually build. The other part of “unlock” is that it very much puts the onus on the other levels of government, who do have those levers, to do the work now that the federal government has cleared the way for them.
As a developer, let me say this: I fully support the first bullet in the Public Land for Homes plan. When governments lease land for development, instead of selling it, they keep that land in the public trust and they can deliver homes more affordably. We currently have a deal… pic.twitter.com/o2QNAyJWqL
— Jennifer Keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) April 12, 2024
This is the first tax REDUCTION ever done by this administration – and it’s for housing.
Designed to create new units by more than doubling the capital cost allowance for apartment creation.
I have to say I’m impressed with Housing Plan. Execution is the challenge. pic.twitter.com/viKNEAM4Ll
— Daniel Foch (@daniel_foch) April 12, 2024
Guys….this is a BIG deal pic.twitter.com/2oRO5asEyW
— Ben Rabidoux (@BenRabidoux) April 12, 2024
A lot of this has shown that they have been listening to expert like Mike Moffatt, and while you can read his full thread, I did think it was nice that they put out a chart as to whose responsible for what, because there are a lot of people who are ignorant about these kinds of jurisdictional questions (or pretend to be in any case), so it’s handy that they actually spell it out.
https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1778804892183748617
https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1778808362668306508
And a couple more thoughts from Jennifer Robson in this thread:
There are some measures in here that could be important but I'm not going to comment on because I just haven't seen modelling or have access to the data. Things likes capital cost allowance mortgage bonds and GST measures.
— Dr. J Robson (@JenniferRobson8) April 12, 2024
Ukraine Dispatch:
Shortages of air defences is leaving Kharkiv in particular more vulnerable to Russian attack. A drone attack hit an energy facility in Dnipropetrovsk in the south. Reuters has another photo series of the front lines.
⚡️International Press Institute sends letter to Ukrainian authorities after intimidation of journalists.
"(W)e call on authorities to establish systemic safeguards that prevent SBU officials from targeting journalists or other critics," the letter said.https://t.co/iH5DVMf7KD
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 12, 2024
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
Abraham LincolnThe combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to April 13, 2024. pic.twitter.com/gwQDtPAlTU
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 13, 2024