With affordability, especially for accommodation, drawing more than its fair share of attention these days, a study by the home builders in this country shows government is a big part of the problem in bringing the cost of housing into the reach of more people.
This is an interesting one because government is just about the only variable generating huge discrepancies in the cost of a home in various parts of the country. The price of lumber, for example, is comparable in Toronto and Moose Jaw so the cost of building a house should be fairly similar. But it’s not. Not ever close.
One variance is local government processes. The home builders’ study says delays in approvals add to costs because it extends the risk a builder must assume — and then there are fees.
In the 2022 version of this study, Saskatoon and then Regina ranked number two and three in Canada on approval times. Toronto was dead last at twentieth. Add both government surcharges and approval time and Regina’s dropped to seventh and Saskatoon fell to eleventh place.
