I'm not very knowledgeable about the housing crises in Canada but why actually is this problem exacerbated to this level? Can't they build more houses to overcome this? And how does this tie back to immigration?
For one thing, There are only these many cities in Canada which can be called cities. Like Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Victoria etc. Rest have too few people to have enough jobs or facilities etc.
Out of these cities, leaving Calgary, rest have one or another geographic limitation. Vancouver is sandwitched between high mountains and sea, Victoria is on an Island, Toronto has a lake and USA on one side. So on and so forth. Then there is this crazy idea that land usage MUST be really restricted to not allow building more houses. Its called bylaws. Most of the time, it is supported by house owners who go and shout like hell "Down with new house, down with tyrany of less homeless people". Its got a name. Its called NIMBYism in Canada for "Not In My Back Yard, dammit". Its really funny to watch except it makes house prices go up. I mean, very very advantaged people coming and protesting how the state is trampling their human rights of constant appriciation of their property by 20% each year. They do not want local bodies to allow constructing more cheap homes in their neighborhood because it will bring down the prices of their own houses.
So on and on it goes.
