Canada’s obsession with uniform building standards has done immeasurable harm to Canadian society, but particularly to rural Canada.
Rural areas that don’t have regional developers do not get new houses built, so of course they age much faster than areas with new construction.
Two generations ago it was easy and affordable to build new homes because the future occupant could turn their own labour into housing, and they could cheap out on the materials that they needed to. The cost difference between second-hand, single-pane windows and new double-pane windows is $30K. The r-value difference is between r-1 and r-2, respectfully.
Ridding ourselves of the building code and allowing insurance to do the job of risk mitigation and building standards could return new home costs to post-war levels of affordability. I’m very passionate about this subject and the whole discourse drives me insane.
The conclusion from this may indeed be as you say not all that much that governments can do which in other words could be phrased as get out of the way, reduce the red tape, quit trying to dictate what should be built and let the market and consumers make their own decision. Would also considerably reduce pointless government spending and the size of the bureaucracy.
You write that the governments dedicate funds but that those funds appear to not be fully expended and/or that costs keep going up and/or, and/or ..... Or something. That last "Or something" is my frustration that despite your fine efforts it is clear that a) the problems are not getting solved; b) the governments dedicate increasing amounts of monies through a vast number of (sometimes contradictory) programs but, again, the problems still exist.
So, you identify and have identified a number of problems, including a) municipal fees and restrictions; b) the damned building codes; and c) yada, yada, yada, yada. Of course, the fine (sarcasm) NIMBY folks need to take a bow too. Ultimately, the point is that everyone is talking about the problem but, really, pretty damned few folks are actually DOING SOMETHING about the problem.
In my own case, being retired means that I have a limited number of years left and then my estate goes to my kids. But, but, but, they need housing now. So, what I did a few years ago is to renovate my house and put an apartment in the basement into which my wife and I moved and my daughter and family took over our old space. Not particularly innovative but I could do it and my kids could benefit.
I know that my "solution" will not work for many folks but why could I find my own (not particularly) "innovative" solution and our governments cannot take a knife to the regulations, the this, the that, etc.? The lack of real action certainly makes me wonder about conspiracy theories. Dumb me, I guess. But I do wonder.
Canada’s obsession with uniform building standards has done immeasurable harm to Canadian society, but particularly to rural Canada.
Rural areas that don’t have regional developers do not get new houses built, so of course they age much faster than areas with new construction.
Two generations ago it was easy and affordable to build new homes because the future occupant could turn their own labour into housing, and they could cheap out on the materials that they needed to. The cost difference between second-hand, single-pane windows and new double-pane windows is $30K. The r-value difference is between r-1 and r-2, respectfully.
Ridding ourselves of the building code and allowing insurance to do the job of risk mitigation and building standards could return new home costs to post-war levels of affordability. I’m very passionate about this subject and the whole discourse drives me insane.
I've actually written about some of the excellent points before, but putting a real-world (rural) face on it adds power.
The conclusion from this may indeed be as you say not all that much that governments can do which in other words could be phrased as get out of the way, reduce the red tape, quit trying to dictate what should be built and let the market and consumers make their own decision. Would also considerably reduce pointless government spending and the size of the bureaucracy.
You write that the governments dedicate funds but that those funds appear to not be fully expended and/or that costs keep going up and/or, and/or ..... Or something. That last "Or something" is my frustration that despite your fine efforts it is clear that a) the problems are not getting solved; b) the governments dedicate increasing amounts of monies through a vast number of (sometimes contradictory) programs but, again, the problems still exist.
So, you identify and have identified a number of problems, including a) municipal fees and restrictions; b) the damned building codes; and c) yada, yada, yada, yada. Of course, the fine (sarcasm) NIMBY folks need to take a bow too. Ultimately, the point is that everyone is talking about the problem but, really, pretty damned few folks are actually DOING SOMETHING about the problem.
In my own case, being retired means that I have a limited number of years left and then my estate goes to my kids. But, but, but, they need housing now. So, what I did a few years ago is to renovate my house and put an apartment in the basement into which my wife and I moved and my daughter and family took over our old space. Not particularly innovative but I could do it and my kids could benefit.
I know that my "solution" will not work for many folks but why could I find my own (not particularly) "innovative" solution and our governments cannot take a knife to the regulations, the this, the that, etc.? The lack of real action certainly makes me wonder about conspiracy theories. Dumb me, I guess. But I do wonder.