Toronto is changing — it might as well be for the better

As the municipal election looms, housing affordability is the No. 1 issue in Toronto. According to polling by Forum Research, it has eclipsed gridlock as the biggest concern.

Which is no surprise. Since the 2014 election, home prices have increased almost 50 per cent across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), while Toronto rents are the highest in the country — devastating news for newcomers, longtime renters and businesses looking for talent.

Thankfully, city hall can address the affordability issue. Fundamentally, the cost of buying and renting is driven upward by a scarcity of available homes. This is why the cross-GTA rental vacancy rate is at or below 1 per cent, a historic low falling woefully short of the healthier 3 per cent in Montreal.

To reverse this scarcity, local governments must approve the construction of more homes, and at a quicker rate — be it by streamlining the building permit approvals process or making major changes to the city’s zoning bylaws. Either way, city hall holds the key to cooling prices.

Of course, achieving broad affordability through a growing housing supply inevitably means the face of Toronto will change. It could mean more walk-up apartment buildings in traditionally detached home neighbourhoods; or more modern architecture along historic street fronts or in neighbourhoods, like the Annex; or less ground-level parking. In short, choosing affordability means choosing change, including change to the city’s physical appearance.

This kind of change will understandably make some people uncomfortable. Existing residents may worry about increased noise and traffic, or a change in neighbourhood character. Many housing opponents fight such changes, ostensibly to preserve the status quo.

But there’s a problem with that calculation. Opposition to development will help spur a different kind of change, as the city’s existing population ages and young people depart for cheaper pastures.

According to Statistics Canada data on intraprovincial migration (movements between Ontario communities), the number of young working-age people (20-34year-olds) leaving the city for more affordable parts of the province has accelerated in recent years. Fewer young people means fewer families and fewer workers, making things difficult for growing businesses looking to hire or retain talent. It can also mean more people commuting into the city but paying taxes to other municipalities.

As such, opposing more housing in Toronto can help frustrate change in some neighbourhoods, but does nothing to preserve the defining element of any great city — its people. Maintaining the appearance of certain neighbourhoods might serve nostalgia, but freezing neighbourhoods in time will eventually strangle the city’s life blood.

As the urban thinker Jane Jacobs once wrote: “people make (the city), and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.”

As Torontonians consider their city’s future in October’s election and beyond, they should ask themselves what kind of change they prefer. Change that favours buildings or change that favours people? The choice should be obvious.