Cherise Burda is the Executive Director of City Building TMU and is a member of the Task Force for Housing & Climate, which recently published 140 policy recommendations.
A lot of what we did was look at a number of recommendations from other committees and all the research that was available. But what was also critical was that the Clean Economy Fund commissioned research specific to this task force. They commissioned a group of climate experts and climate modelers to model the climate and carbon impacts of new housing under two scenarios. One scenario was building our 5.8M new homes the same way we always have. was building 5.
For me, one of the biggest takeaways from the blueprint is the issue of location — of where we build — being fundamental to getting housing right. A lot of times when people think about housing and climate, their brains automatically go to solar panels or making the building green, and yes, that's a very important issue, but I think people don't automatically think about where we build as being fundamental.
I think it would be fair to say that some of the recommendations are more realistic and achievable than others. Which ones would you say are the quick fixes governments can implement that can make an impact? BC is also moving ahead with a lot more affordability . Now, they have jurisdiction over affordable housing , because they didn't download it to the municipalities like in places such as Ontario — that's why Toronto has Toronto Community Housing. Municipalities don't have the budget to build more housing. They barely have the budget to maintain existing affordable housing. That's why affordable housing is such a challenge.