Alberta government decries 'baseless, politically motivated' affordable housing report
Report card commissioned by national task force gave Alberta D+ grade
The Alberta government says it's rejecting the findings of a "baseless, politically motivated" report that gave the province a failing grade on addressing affordable housing.
The Report Card on More and Better Housing, released Thursday, gave Alberta a D+ — the worst overall grade for any province in Canada.
Though author Mike Moffatt of the University of Ottawa's Missing Middle Initiative praised Edmonton and Calgary for implementing "fantastic reforms," he said the provincial government needs to build more social housing, cut red tape, reform building codes and address climate risks.
The province says the report is flawed and the rest of Canada should follow Alberta's lead in implementing policies that deliver "real results."
"This is not a report on affordable housing — as it claims to be — but is instead a report by a climate activist group that ignores reality in an effort to push their green agenda," said Amber Edgerton, press secretary for the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services, in an emailed statement.
She said the report fails to recognize the importance of affordability, record housing starts in Alberta, and the province's recent building code changes and flood mitigation efforts.
Who's behind the report?
The Task Force for Housing and Climate, a group of 15 housing policy experts that formed in 2023 to make recommendations for governments, commissioned the report.
Former Edmonton mayor Don Iveson and Lisa Raitt, former deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, co-chair the group.
The Clean Economy Fund, an Ontario-based charitable foundation that supports climate philanthropy in Canada, funded the report.
Who else is criticizing it?
The report misses the mark because it's too focused on policies, not results, said Kalen Anderson, CEO of BILD Edmonton Metro, a building and land development industry group.
"Alberta is the engine for Canadian housing bar none, and both Edmonton and Calgary are top jurisdictions for efficiency in terms of planning, development timelines, even development charges," she told CBC News.
Anderson said there's always more work to do, but Alberta is producing the most housing per capita and maintaining the most affordable rents, amid record population growth.
Most conversations Anderson been a part of over the past couple of years, at national, provincial and local levels, were "about trying to describe what Edmonton and Calgary's secret sauce is, and why Alberta is such an outlier in terms of its leadership of housing creation," she said.
Who's defending it?
Some say the report should be a wake-up call for the provincial government.
Naomie Bakana, president of the students' union at the University of Calgary, said too many students are having to choose between safe and affordable housing.
The union has heard stories about asbestos in apartments and as many as seven students living together in one room, she said.
"What the province needs to do is take these recommendations into consideration," Bakana said.
Students can't throw away grades they disagree with, so neither should the government, she said.
Janis Irwin, housing critic for the Opposition NDP, said Assisted Living and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon often talks about Alberta leading the country in building more housing, but he's referring to market-rate housing.
The government needs to invest in and increase the supply of non-market-rate housing, including permanent supportive housing, Irwin said. She added that that form of housing save lives and, in the long-term, money.
Irwin called on all levels of government to work together on the housing issue to maximize progress. Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi echoed the call in a statement, saying all governments "need to step up and do their part to tackle housing affordability."
Nadine Chalifoux, chair of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, said the province could be learning from what other jurisdictions are doing to address the housing crisis, from reforming building codes to building more social housing.
"I would hope that they would take that seriously, but it doesn't sound like they are," Chalifoux said.
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