Ford has really ramped up the showmanship lately, calling for a bike lane witch hunt and making magical announcements about beer, highway tunnels and $200 cheques. Much of it, it seems, is being done in the service of getting us to look away from the reality of how things are going in Ford’s Ontario.
In particular, he’d really like us to pay no attention to the housing policy failure behind the curtain. But by the numbers, Ford’s failure on housing should be way too big to hide.
A report released last week by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation revealed that housing starts in Ontario are down 18 per cent so far this year. That stat, which measures the number of new housing units that saw construction get started, should set off loud alarm bells. Because housing, more than any other issue, has been Ford’s signature issue — the subject of lots of legislation. He’s styled himself as a builder-in-chief who will “get it done.”
This isn’t a case of Ontario’s large population skewing the numbers, either. For his excellent Data Shows newsletter, analyst Tom Parkin recently crunched the per-capita numbers for housing starts and found Ontario ranked eighth out of Canada’s 10 provinces. According to Parkin’s numbers, with just 34 new starts for every 100,000 people, Ontario’s rate of per-capita building was well below that of provincial peers like Manitoba (47), Quebec (47.8), B.C. (58.8) and Alberta (89.9).
With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that the province has dim hopes of hitting its much-ballyhooed goal of building 1.5 million homes by the end of 2031.
Well, the focus on bike lanes is one that directly affects the safety of people. It’s a very important issue.
But yes, Ford is one failure after another, which doesn’t phase Conservative voters.
We need a different approach to government who is abusing their power and failing the people this badly.
On a side-note, the urban sprawl in Durham Region has been insane. Unrecognizable if you’ve lived here a while. We really need to stop building low density homes and focus on building taller, high-density units.
Our wildlife has been devastated, and if this is what 8th out of 10 looks like, I would hate to see how bad it could get.
I’m told I’m less safe riding on a bike lane than the road. I don’t buy it. I think the safety line is a false narrative used to sell the removal.
Even if that were true you’re even safer riding on a raised or physically separated bike path.
My guess is that they’re pushing to get cyclists in the streets first so that they can later can cycles from the road altogether when drivers complain about having to navigate around slow cyclists on their roads
Bike lanes are an issue that Ford can use to his political advantage in a way that housing is not. His base wants to see cyclists get punished for biking. On the other hand, the boomer segment of his base also do not want to see housing prices come down because that is where the majority of their assets are, so it almost makes sense for Ford to talk big about it and then do nothing…