This $2.2 billion tax giveaway is inequitable and short-sighted. Public funds and tax breaks should not be offered indiscriminately and unconditionally. They should be extended on a targeted basis, as
If provincial and federal governments want to truly tackle this problem, they should work together to fund the purchase (or at least down payment) of property for more housing coops in order to remove the profit-skimming middleman. Then whatever small crew of people are needed for managing day-to-day concerns or sudden issues are all answering directly to a democratically-run tenants’ or condo owners’ union, and rents only have to go up at the rate of long-term operating costs (which I believe it’s been shown can stay relatively flat for a while once a building’s initial cost is paid off).
If provincial and federal governments want to truly tackle this problem, they should work together to fund the purchase (or at least down payment) of property for more housing coops in order to remove the profit-skimming middleman. Then whatever small crew of people are needed for managing day-to-day concerns or sudden issues are all answering directly to a democratically-run tenants’ or condo owners’ union, and rents only have to go up at the rate of long-term operating costs (which I believe it’s been shown can stay relatively flat for a while once a building’s initial cost is paid off).