The provincial government in Ontario has sold a parking garage and office building in downtown Toronto to a private developer. Some affordable housing is promised.
Conservatives in power? Recent history in the Province of Ontario suggests that ‘small government’ will be the order of the day. Divest, download, promote private initiatives, anything to shrink the meddling of provincial government in everyday lives.
It seems that the current Conservative government has spotted a way in which a single action produces two kinds of brownie points: divesting surplus government land both satisfies small-government aims, while it also tackles affordable housing issues.
On a day in which Ryerson University released a report encouraging more aggressive government use of surplus lands for affordable housing, the Ontario Government could be heard tooting its own horn for doing just that.
Let’s hope that the provincial government will continue its divesting ways, and target partnerships that build considerable quantities of affordable housing, not the symbolic handful that cozying up to a major Toronto free market developer will deliver. We may be waiting for a while.