Post by @pinhman@humanwords.party

2026-09-28 18:11 UTC

Canada, Following the Rules, Agreements, borrowing Europe's better ideas <- we're supposed to be good at this? Instead of privatize airports to build Canada, make affordable housing public. Follow Finland's Munifin and subsidize/ guarantee housing finance. No shortage of demand in Canada. Make financing housing less risky than privatizing airports and building pipelines. Follow Austria and Vienna's housing association legislation Have municipalities, worker organizations, and business groups ... collaborate to create affordable housing associations that each benefit from, with solid legislation to prevent compromise and abuse. But Canada's wealthy and well-financed for-profit housing industry will complain loudly and effectively.. “A non-profit housing system in Austria costs taxpayer money but it is a good investment. It reduces the amounts needed for household subsidies, shifts resources from high-income landlords to more construction and economy-wide consumption, it is a net gain for the economy,” #cdnpoli https://www.housingeurope.eu/new-research-from-austria-demonstrates-that-not-for-profit-housing-can-tame-the-housing-market/ https://www.kuntarahoitus.fi/en/who-we-finance/affordable-social-housing https://www.housinginternational.coop/members/osterreichischer-verband-gemeinnutziger-bauvereinigungen-revisionsverband-austrian-federation/

Replies (2)

@pinhman@humanwords.party 2026-09-28 20:12

Limited profit housing collaborations, how would it work? Municipalities work to support the infrastructure & local policy. Right of first refusal for limited profit? Their payback increased residents and higher taxpayer base. How do they contribute financially? Employee groups. Members get access to this less costly housing, How do they contribute? Payback - lower housing costs. Business groups, their employees agree to a marginally lower compensation, that matches the lower housing costs, but only if and when their employees _choose_ to live in collaborative housing. Payback - lower labour costs. How do they contribute? If everyone played nice it has potential, but what if they don't. What policy and legalese is needed? Who holds the ownership, who has the authority & governance? Canmore is already doing something like this. It's service/tourist based industry relies on employees having affordable housing, For-profit housing is too expensive It's limited to people either working or running a business within Canmore. https://www.canmorehousing.ca/about-us/

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@zazzoo@mstdn.ca 2026-09-28 18:16

@pinhman@humanwords.party The problem is that while us lefties look for ways of doing things collectively, neoliberals like Carney look for ways to inject private interests and competition. The former requires the government to actually do something, while the latter lets them wash their hands of the actual implementation. So, we get tax incentives for builders, instead of a public construction effort, we get private airports instead of publicly run ones and, at the provincial level, we get private health services under public funding. All these things involve profit taking at every point in the chain, and this is why we never seem to have enough money for nice things anymore.

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