Trudeau Wary of Unintended Consequences in Dealing with Vancouver's Housing Crisis

Prime Minister Trudeau took sides on one controversial issue central to the debate about the cost of housing in Vancouver, but stopped short of suggesting a clear policy agenda for the federal government to improve the problem.

1 minute read

June 21, 2016, 7:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Justin Trudeau

Stacey Newman / Shutterstock

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says 'obviously overseas money coming in is playing a role' in Metro Vancouver's housing crisis," according to an article by Mike Laanela, "But it remains unclear what his government will do to cool down the region's red hot real estate market."

The article goes into more details about Prime Minister Trudeau's statements, which mostly expressed caution on the role of the federal government in improving the situation. "We need to make sure that any action we take is not going to make the situation worse. The law of unintended consequences is very, very present in housing markets," according to a direct quote of Trudeau from the article. Especially concerning to Prime Minister Trudea is the possibility that actions that might benefit one region of the country might have adverse effects in another part of the country.

Prime Minister Trudeau was in town to take action on an issue intertwined with the cost of housing: public transit. Prime Minister Trudeau and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark "signed a transit funding agreement totaling over $900 million, making British Columbia the first province in Canada to ratify a bilateral transit deal," according to a separate article by the CBC News.

Friday, June 17, 2016 in CBC News

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