Opinion: Canadians pay a high price when governments ignore common sense

financialpost.com:

By Jason Clemens and Niels Veldhuis

Due to a dearth of common sense in government policy across the country, but particularly in Ottawa, Canadians are paying a high price in terms of living standards, an increased burden of government and diminished economic prospects for the future. To reverse these trends, governments must make a dramatic U-turn based on common sense and real-world evidence.

Consider, for instance, one of the top issues worrying Canadians right now — housing affordability. Every politician from coast to coast pays lip service to the need to improve housing affordability. And yet some of the actions being taken not only will fail to increase affordability but will worsen it markedly.

Repeated analyses have shown that the main cause of Canada’s affordability crisis is the lack of construction of new homes (including single- and semi-detached, row housing and apartments). Housing completions reached 219,942 in 2022 but much more is needed just to catch up with existing demand.

At the same time, the federal government has super-charged immigration. Canada’s population is expected to increase by more than 1.2 million people in 2023, largely through immigration. While immigration is a positive for the country, it needs to be assessed alongside other considerations. Common sense tells us that we can’t increase the population by more than one million people in a year — while only increasing housing by roughly 220,000 — without imposing enormous strain on the housing market.

This isn’t a new issue. From 2015 to 2022, Canada’s population increased by 3.3 million while housing completions were half that at 1.6 million.

Or consider another hot-button issue — energy. The federal government and several provinces