Things have gotten so bad that I'm willing to vote for whoever takes the most significant measures to make housing affordable. Here's a half-baked assortment of the sort of policies that would either increase supply or reduce demand:

1. Allow mixed-use medium-density housing in areas that now allow only single-family homes. Allow mixed-use high-density housing to be built in proximity to subway, train, bus stations.

2. Reduce the taxes and paperwork required to (re)build a home.

3. Pay several architecture firms to design a variety of housing and offer those projects free of charge to the public. A la "Vancouver Special".

4. Use public land to build social housing below market rates

5. Municipalities buying old apartment buildings and renting them out below current market rates

6. Maintain a central registry of who owns what housing and who lives there (necessary for the policies below). This can be used to audit abuses

7. Raise property taxes on vacant housing

8. Introduce a new yearly anti-speculation tax that depends on the owner of the unit:

   • Canadian citizens: 0%.
   • Permanent residents and people with work permits: 0%.
   • Companies established in Canada:
     • Single-family dwelling: 5%.
     • Dwelling between two and 6 units: 2%
     • Housing with more units: 0%
   • All other assumptions: 10% <-- this includes foreign investors

9. Halve immigration targets until housing crisis is over

Edit: 10. Eliminate parking minimums. Let business decide how much parking they need.

The legislation — one component of Premier David Eby’s New Democratic Party government’s pivot on housing policy — is designed to address chronic municipal-level roadblocks to new housing, including exclusionary zoning policies and expensive multiyear rezoning and permitting processes. Under the legislation, the province will work with municipalities to assess local housing needs and create binding targets for building homes more rapidly. If cities fail to make clear progress toward meeting the targets, the province has the power to intervene directly including by approving housing projects and amending zoning bylaws.

Oh god, every province copy this right now.