Alberta housing policies graded lowest in the country: Report

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    Alberta gets the lowest grade in the country when it comes to its housing policies, but both the housing industry and the province disagree with that assessment. Edward Djan has more.

    By Edward Djan

    Alberta is getting the lowest grade in the country when it comes to its housing policies, but both the housing industry and the province disagree with that assessment.

    A new report from the Task Force for Housing and Climate gave the province’s policies a D+ grade in creating affordable, low-carbon, resilient homes.

    According to the report card’s author Mike Moffatt, Alberta is receiving the lowest grade in the country not because of a lack of housing starts, but because the province hasn’t done enough to legalize denser forms of housing, incentivize factory-built homes and change building codes to make homes more resilient.

    “We are assessing the performance of provincial governments, not provinces,” says Moffatt. “There are a lot of great things happening in Alberta, but a lot of that is due to municipal reforms.

    “The province has really kind of fallen behind others when it comes to housing.”

    The province vehemently disagrees with the report, saying in a lengthy statement that the government “rejects the findings of this baseless, politically motivated report.”

    The statement went on to say that Alberta has been a leader in the country not only in increasing housing supply, but that last year the provincial government introduced stronger building code requirements that protect against environmental conditions like weather and climate.

    Alberta’s building industry also says the report doesn’t reflect the reality that is on the ground in the province.

    “In Alberta we measure results, we are not so much caught up in measuring regulations,” says Kalen Anderson, CEO of BILD Edmonton Metro. “This report seemed to be privileging more regulatory intervention from the government which only has the effect of slowing down construction and raising costs of housing.”

    Brian Hahn, the CEO of BILD Calgary Region, says the poor grade comes as a surprise.

    “Our two major cities in Alberta are number 1 and number 2 in terms of being scored as being the most affordable metropolitan areas in Canada to acquire a home,” he says.

    But, Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek says the report backs up some of the needs Calgary has been looking for the province to act on.

    “When we are seeing such great results in our own city, I guess the thing I would ask is for the province to step up and do their part as well,” says Gondek.

    Meanwhile, Edmonton mayor Amarjeet Sohi, in a statement to CityNews, is calling on all levels of government to work to increase housing for low-income earners and those who are homeless.

    No province earned a grade higher than C+ in the report, but all other provinces besides Alberta were in the C range. The federal government received the highest grade — a B.

    The Task Force for Housing and Climate is a non-governmental body that was struck in 2023 with backing from the philanthropic Clean Economy Fund.

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