True Patriot Love - The Death Of A Starter Home： Canada's Housing Reality Check

00:00:00.000 once upon a time millions of canadians were raised in small two-bedroom bungalows built

00:00:10.080 after world war ii and lived great lives and had no problem and it was something affordable for a

00:00:15.760 working-class canadian to live and thrive in and raise a family those days are long gone but they

00:00:21.040 have to come back if we're ever going to see canadians into home ownership but talk more

00:00:25.200 about it thrilled to be joined by paul micucci paul how are you good jim how are you doing

00:00:28.800 good i i bring that up because my wife grew up her parents were dutch immigrants they grew up

00:00:34.320 in a small two-bedroom bungalow in scarborough which is a suburb of toronto and it was very

00:00:39.280 similar to these small post-world war ii homes that were built across canada and millions of

00:00:45.600 canadian families were raised in it no problem yeah well you know and more homes still exist you

00:00:51.120 know down uh most of my life i've lived in etobicoke yeah so quite frankly and in etobicoke

00:00:57.840 there's still when you get closer to the lake an abundance of old two-bedroom war homes and

00:01:04.160 developers for years because of the lot size would take them knock them down and rebuild but no more

00:01:09.760 so they're looking at it the economic model and it was fine when when land values quite frankly

00:01:15.680 were going off at 200 250 500 you could pick up a property and you can make it work it doesn't work

00:01:23.360 anymore quite frankly so what the interesting part we'll get into the math on the homes in a

00:01:27.920 minute because it's very important and a lot of you you know know the math but we'll go over it

00:01:33.200 in the show it's really important to kind of look at that because okay now we have these old war

00:01:39.680 homes they're now 70 years old jim yeah so so if i'm a if i'm a young canadian and i'm starting out

00:01:46.640 like i did you know when i was young i i went and bought i my first home that i did buy i bought it

00:01:52.960 and it had 17 people from ethiopia living in it and my father told me i was crazy and i said no

00:02:01.840 no i said i'm getting this at a really low price right and i said i'm not going to use it as a

00:02:06.960 rental home i'm going to gut it and rebuild it because the four walls were i i said to my dad

00:02:12.640 and i'd grown up with my dad who had renovated homes his whole life i said i think the structure

00:02:18.560 is good dad i've seen homes like the bones were good the bones are good the bones were terrible

00:02:22.160 by the way i was totally wrong right so i got into this home and i had to demo like i literally took

00:02:27.920 it down to the stud took all the insulation out i rebuilt the home and it was a nightmare right

00:02:33.760 i lived in the home but but it really was a nightmare to do but i did it but remember when

00:02:39.120 i'm doing it that home is only 40 years old yes or no not less it actually was 30 years old yeah

00:02:46.800 so that was a 30-year-old home which was beaten up at that time that home's still standing so i

00:02:52.160 drive by that home every once in a while i do that deja vu drive where i go around that's the place

00:02:57.120 we used to live yeah exactly you know and because they're mostly in etobicoke i do this round trip

00:03:01.520 drive so i do this drive and i go look at it and i think to myself wow that house still staying then

00:03:06.240 i think myself oh my goodness that house is 70 years old like seven years old jim like houses

00:03:11.680 aren't meant to be standing you know they they rot the wood rots quite frankly the mold the

00:03:18.720 insulation deteriorates quite frankly who i don't want to get into the health factors that go into

00:03:24.800 the living in one of these homes because you're living amongst the mold and the rot that's

00:03:29.440 actually creating the home that's standing so my thought paul is why can't developers build a new

00:03:36.080 wave of those size of homes on small lots the demographics are showing more and more young

00:03:42.180 Canadians either have no kids or one kid you don't need five bedrooms they don't want 4,000 square

00:03:48.240 feet they want something easy to maintain easy to clean easy to heat and you look up all the bylaws

00:03:54.640 that they have the federal and the provincial governments have to change municipal bylaws in

00:04:00.260 the country because a lot of the bylaws have minimum square footage for builders so if i you

00:04:06.100 and i are developers and most communities in canada we're not even allowed to build a small

00:04:10.700 home even if we wanted to to present an affordable option to young canadians well the funny thing i'm

00:04:15.960 laughing at right because very recently not too long ago like this is like a year ago yeah there

00:04:23.360 were crazy debates about putting more density onto property like this is how the world's the

00:04:30.380 four plex and six plexes and stuff yeah but but even putting on uh suites uh the accessory

00:04:36.940 dwellings yeah yes so putting them in your backyard and doing all this stuff to actually

00:04:41.380 add more dense so we were think about it we were so hell-bent to actually add more density onto

00:04:47.700 properties that the debates were were going the other way so the interesting part of this is if

00:04:52.800 think about it which were for an older canadian who's still holding their home this is a real

00:05:00.080 challenge because what we've done is we've actually said okay no i don't want more density so like

00:05:08.000 toronto for example they were very adamant that people could not add more density into

00:05:14.080 certain areas yeah right because if you're if you have a high net worth or high value home

00:05:19.200 the last thing you want is a bunch of six plexus in your neighborhood so they fought it the older

00:05:24.000 canadians you know the seniors in our communities went out and they they beat they got into rallies

00:05:28.960 they and they won they won and i think it only ended up in nine places or nine communities in

00:05:34.240 toronto some boroughs or ridings but so it ended up in nine places and still people there are really

00:05:40.240 mad so now fast forward to today values have dropped out the bylaws no one's building

00:05:49.200 You can't afford to build.

00:05:50.700 So this is the conundrum range.

00:05:51.800 So, you know, before COVID, we were building homes at $200 to $300 a square foot.

00:06:00.080 Okay, that's reasonable.

00:06:01.340 Yeah.

00:06:02.080 We got into COVID because of the supply, you know, the perceived supply chain challenges.

00:06:08.980 It went up to $300 and $400.

00:06:11.760 I looked today, I went and looked at Ontario Build, and they're now saying they're at $400 to $500

00:06:18.720 dollars a square foot so it didn't go down and nothing ever goes down you know the funny thing

00:06:22.720 is you know you come out of cove and you think to yourself okay lumber is going to go down steel is

00:06:27.120 going to go down you know uh drywall is going to go down my paint costs have you if you painted

00:06:32.640 lately my partner she's the painter and it's not cheap it's not cheap when you know i i every time

00:06:39.360 my wife and i go to pick up paint i always say to her like in good paint because you want to paint

00:06:43.680 with good paint but you know you go there and you come out of the store and you're like i remember

00:06:47.680 the day when i used to pick up paint for ten dollars a gallon forget that you can't even get

00:06:51.440 a sample for 10 bucks now the little paint strips exactly just to paint a wall so you know you're

00:06:57.120 looking at you're saying okay now i'm at now i'm at let's say for for this show five hundred dollars

00:07:02.960 a square foot it's staggering right to you know we got to the point where everyone wanted four

00:07:09.680 and five you you couldn't we had a hard time selling a 3 500 square foot home oh because it

00:07:15.040 it was bigger people wanted bigger so they wanted to they wanted more uh coverage on their lot they

00:07:21.800 wanted bigger so then what what you know the construction world did is they went to four and

00:07:27.540 five thousand square feet so now you're you know you're sitting there at today but you know you're

00:07:33.280 at five hundred dollars a square foot you're at four thousand so you're at two million the price

00:07:37.360 of land right so you're trying to find that uh two bedroom war home that's 70 years old that has all

00:07:43.580 those issues you're trying to knock it down so you're into a million a million two million four

00:07:48.440 whatever you're getting it for so just to get out of that you're at 3.4 million dollars and you're

00:07:54.960 trying to resell it there is no sale market right now for anything over three million in in the gta

00:08:02.800 if if you think you're going to build homes and sell them for more than three million dollars

00:08:08.000 you're nuts and think about the other factors doesn't exist right and think about the other

00:08:13.100 factor is working against you you have that scenario which i've heard time and time again

00:08:17.600 paul with everything going on on our end the price of gas keeps going up and up and up and

00:08:22.660 dan mctagg who was on this channel predicted it and hit maybe even worse than he thinks

00:08:27.520 yeah we have interest rates we have the bank of canada said no it's not only going to hold steady

00:08:32.460 a lot of economists are thinking we're going to have higher interest rates by the end of the year

00:08:36.400 means higher mortgages and a lot of the people's wages have not gone up that much in the last 10

00:08:42.820 years they've gone up a little but not as much they're not to the point of 500 square foot of

00:08:47.000 hole yeah well yesterday the bank of canada did you see it yeah yeah he holding steady and he

00:08:55.040 and he had some pretty dire warnings for canadians about the economy and preparing us a not only are

00:09:01.460 we not going to drop any interest rates by the fall they're probably going to go up again yeah

00:09:06.340 well you know go back you know we're just talking on the previous show about 1990 and the recession

00:09:12.480 and all the things through the Ray days and everything went on

00:09:15.980 and interest rates, you know, we're going back, right?

00:09:19.440 So now you're sitting and you want a starter home

00:09:21.680 because, you know, that's where we started the show.

00:09:25.080 If I can't build a smaller home, I can't afford a larger home.

00:09:28.780 So where do you do? Where do you go?

00:09:30.900 Well, you don't want a condo because, quite frankly,

00:09:34.500 we've done condo shows and condo shows are, you know, let's be serious.

00:09:37.780 The bottom isn't there yet, right?

00:09:39.440 So maybe a townhouse?

00:09:40.520 guess maybe good luck picking up a townhouse yeah you know they're not easy to get right now because

00:09:47.140 people who have them are holding on to them they're not flipping them out unless they lose them

00:09:51.100 and the new ones in that they're building in the suburbs start about five five fifty i've been

00:09:55.060 seeing yeah starting but still construction costs to build a new townhouse development for

00:09:59.740 developers crazy still yeah and can you get the money for a townhouse maybe you can maybe maybe

00:10:05.320 the bank of mom and dad right bank of mom and dad the bank of mom and dad but then if you're

00:10:09.180 sitting there and you're thinking to yourself do i is my job stable am i going to be here that long

00:10:15.300 um can i get work here am i going to keep the work here do i need to actually tie myself to

00:10:20.840 real estate because if i have to move and the market's on the on the downward slope am i picking

00:10:26.280 it up at the wrong time so the starter home this is the interesting part now they're not building

00:10:31.080 starter homes no no there's no starter homes so as you you know years ago we started off i tell

00:10:36.760 you the story the home the old homes were not old enough that i could take them and gut them and then

00:10:42.540 sell them yeah that worked right i could live in them and then i work my way up so i you know you

00:10:47.540 start at this level home and then you buy a little higher then you buy a little higher so by the by

00:10:51.580 your fourth home you have a really nice house and you've worked your way up you worked your way up

00:10:55.540 yeah you can't work your way up now no no in vancouver in toronto in montreal in the biggest

00:11:03.060 cities in the country that's not an option right so the interesting part that you know you're

00:11:08.020 getting it you do have to try to figure out now they've come out with modular homes and we looked

00:11:14.020 at this yes just coming out of covet i had an architect friend of mine he came to see me and

00:11:20.340 albert and we sat down and he had all kinds of ideas right albert's from uh hong kong he's a

00:11:25.460 terrific guy i'm gonna have him on the show you know we started brainstorming and he said i'm

00:11:30.420 going back and i'm going to come back and i have lots of ideas for modular homes and stuff and he

00:11:34.900 came back with great ideas we looked at probably five different companies couldn't get approved

00:11:44.980 in canada really so some of them just the technology just honestly it wouldn't pass because

00:11:50.500 it was offshore structurally uh the electrical in the homes and how they weren't don't forget

00:11:55.780 when they say modular homes so now they come pre-wired they come pre-plumbed right like they're

00:12:02.580 they're coming you know you basically and then they connect them as they assemble them they're

00:12:06.180 like big lego lego right okay they come over as lego yeah so you have to you have to figure out

00:12:12.020 all your wiring so now now you're dealing with other countries and standards that aren't ours

00:12:17.620 and canada is not easy to deal with we do not our esa standards for electrical

00:12:23.940 our plumbing and our permitting standards from the different cities they're very high they're

00:12:28.660 very high you know anyone who's built a property it you know it's not and you hear it from

00:12:33.780 politicians all the time it's the child you know your building inspector oh my goodness right you

00:12:40.580 you don't mess with them you have to pray that you get one that's good to work with yeah you know and

00:12:45.300 so far i've been lucky but i have heard horror stories yes you know and and you know the esa

00:12:51.700 guys they do a good job but they're not easy to deal with right from the electrical standards

00:12:56.500 so you know they really make sure that that things are tied down so getting modular homes

00:13:02.580 figured out is very tough i will say this so recently about three weeks ago my wife and i

00:13:08.420 were at the toronto home show home depot canada now offers modular homes okay i'm not kidding

00:13:15.300 they're about 500 550 square feet yeah and it's a home depot and it's like you said it's got the

00:13:21.540 The electrical, the plumbing, the lighting, it's got lots of stuff built in.

00:13:25.840 It almost looks like a trailer home, but it's a modular home, and you just have the property,

00:13:33.140 and they come in with a series of trucks, and they assemble it like the Lego set.

00:13:37.840 So obviously, the different levels of government, Paul, realized we have a crisis in the country,

00:13:43.140 and now all of a sudden you can go on Home Depot Canada, the website,

00:13:46.920 and order your modular home and have it delivered to your property.

00:13:49.580 we and you know i got to give albert credit because he saw this yeah he said this is where

00:13:55.200 this is going he said it's the end of the starter home it's he was right two things he told me

00:14:01.000 coming out of co he said this is the end of the starter home and the end of the luxury home yeah

00:14:06.100 he said there won't be any more he said you won't see any high high-end properties and he said you

00:14:11.300 won't see any new new starter families starting up so then jim what happens to large communities

00:14:18.120 because this is the thing that i can't figure out and i you know i look at it some days i'm

00:14:22.220 driving along i'm thinking okay we brought in a lot of new people you know immigration was high

00:14:29.240 yes now you're mentioning me before the show net we went down the stats canada released it this

00:14:35.100 morning that we lost over 100 000 people in the last three months of 2025 have gone like we're

00:14:40.560 down they're leaving they're leaving yeah they're leaving so we have a net export of people not

00:14:46.180 importing people so so people are leaving they're they're going back home they're going to other

00:14:50.740 countries which if you think about it you know think about all the things happening right now

00:14:54.820 it only plays into economic migration it yes it has to right economic migration is has to be the

00:15:02.420 impact of these policies that we've put into play so that's the prairies far northern ontario the

00:15:09.220 And there are times, places where a young family, a young couple, a young person can buy a piece of Canada and hopefully get a job and make a decent wage.

00:15:19.140 Right. So all of a sudden, all these people new to Canada and people who grew up here, which they have a couple of things to deal with.

00:15:27.340 Number one, if my dad's listening to the show, I hope he's not, dad, because quite frankly, he'd be rolling in, you know, he'd be rolling in that throwing things at the camera.

00:15:35.580 but you know he's uh always told me uh you know italian background you know you have to do better

00:15:44.040 than we did right so that's been the whole you know motto credo yeah most cultures when they

00:15:49.460 came for generations so now we're saying to our kids you're not going to do better

00:15:54.140 demoralizing quite frankly and you're not going to live better so you're going to go back remember

00:16:00.960 remember grandma and grandpa remember great grandpa and grandma's home which was the two bedroom with

00:16:07.520 the one bathroom on the main floor that everyone used and remember we used to go eat dinner in

00:16:12.160 their kitchen which was their living room yes yeah that's the millions of canadians that was

00:16:17.040 their life i'm with you but but you know that's a little bit of a mind shift right all of a sudden

00:16:22.080 all of a sudden you grew up you know my my kids you know you know good for them they probably they

00:16:27.760 had it good quite frankly but i always made sure you know because i like to build and i always build

00:16:32.320 my own stuff i always made sure they had their own bathroom in their own bedroom i spoiled the

00:16:37.760 heck out of them quite frankly because i didn't want them to live like i lived which was in my

00:16:43.840 parents home where we all shared we had one i remember one bathroom in the house right and you

00:16:49.760 know we'd have to line up we'd have to line up there was four of us in the house i had one sister

00:16:54.880 and we used to line up and i remember my dad coming home one day and he said to me

00:17:00.160 i'm ready i said what are we ready for dad he says he says

00:17:04.720 your uncle and i are going to build the shower downstairs right i'm like oh my goodness

00:17:11.840 so you know and so it was a big deal we did the whole christening of the bathroom yeah

00:17:16.480 you know and everyone came over to see it look at it

00:17:18.560 but it was a big deal right and we and we gravitate there and you know then as you

00:17:25.280 grew up you thought yourself okay i'm going to do better than him i'm going to make sure

00:17:30.000 make sure all the kids have their own bathroom yeah you're going to have a guest bathroom you

00:17:34.560 know then as we started buying houses okay i'm going to put in spa features you know and i was

00:17:39.760 very proud of that like it was like it was like a really good and i was happy to do it now i got

00:17:45.200 to go back to my kids and say you're not going to have that hey you're going to the double wide

00:17:49.200 you know so don who works with me and the other company you know when i went down to and i saw

00:17:54.160 this in the states i i went down when i met him in oklahoma he he says to me why don't you come

00:17:59.360 over for dinner right i go for dinner and he is him and his four girls are living in a double

00:18:05.280 wide trailer yeah right and then he bought a house and then he you know he had a nice house at the

00:18:11.200 end but but you know what he was kind of you know he'd come out of the military he was looking where

00:18:16.480 to go next so you know he started there as kind of a starter place and then he grew right and

00:18:21.840 quite frankly it's interesting to see we're going back you know are there going to be double whites

00:18:27.840 are we going to park trailer are we getting to the point where we're going to actually buy property

00:18:32.480 as property falls in value and put trailers on there yeah put mobile trailer on like literally

00:18:38.080 well they're modular right yeah it's just another module you skirt them they don't look like

00:18:42.400 no the but this is interesting you bring this up paul and it's such a good point about

00:18:46.960 for years and generations it was the kids doing a little bit better better job better salary better

00:18:51.600 home oxford university this week just released their yearly happiness study they do in-depth

00:18:57.920 study countries around the world for people 25 years of age and younger finland is rated the

00:19:04.240 happiest country canada's gone from seventh to 25th oh wow so canada for years you think

00:19:11.440 how happy you are to live here young people 25 and under are ranked 25th in the world

00:19:16.320 as far as happiness and you can't tell me that the inability for a lot of young canadians to buy a

00:19:22.080 starter home that their grandparents and parents had is not part of the factor well well it is but

00:19:27.520 you know if you look at it's interesting we've gone from you're talking about happiness the

00:19:32.960 previous show i was talking about with four day work weeks i was going through the theory of why

00:19:38.400 we're thinking about it and why we can't do it and i went through the productivity stats of

00:19:43.120 canada for developed countries 32 developed countries we're actually last now we're in 30

00:19:50.320 second place out of 32. really by 2030 we're projected to fall out of the developed country

00:19:56.400 list that's frightening paul yeah the number of factors that that they uh accumulate to figure

00:20:03.440 out if you're a developed country or not an oedc company country um we're about to fall out of it

00:20:09.840 um so you look at it you know your happy happiness quotient and you look at your productivity

00:20:15.360 quotient you know if if i can't shelter myself be busy and productive make enough income how

00:20:22.320 the heck can i be happy yeah who am i what goals am i achieving because you know man you know again

00:20:28.880 another italian expression i'm killing you with these but now man is meant to be going uphill

00:20:33.840 man it's interesting humans are meant to have an uphill battle yeah and that uphill battle is what

00:20:39.200 makes them happy they're you know people you know longevity people who live in communities that are

00:20:45.200 on a hill live 10 years more or longer than the average person who lives on flat land really yes

00:20:53.760 it's one of the you know centurion uh facts cool when they go to countries and they found that out

00:20:59.760 and it's it's because people like the challenge any challenge and as if it's a physical challenge

00:21:06.880 of getting to the top of the hill if it's a physical challenge of owning a home having a

00:21:10.720 family those are all the things that make people happy and therefore make them live longer having

00:21:15.600 a community is another one quite frankly and if you can't have a home and you can't structure in

00:21:22.160 a place it's really hard to have a community and this is my concern for canada as a country for

00:21:27.600 years we heard about american cities who lost a lot of their young bright people who left the core

00:21:33.360 of the city and went to either the far suburbs suburbs other communities to make to get ahead

00:21:39.920 to get a start yeah in vancouver toronto montreal the big cities of canada we're in danger of losing

00:21:45.280 our best and brightest young people who can they can go on realtor.ca like the rest of us

00:21:51.360 and they can go you know what i can get a job in this community in this province and be able to

00:21:56.000 live i'm going there and they'll leave well the interesting part is i know and this is the

00:22:01.840 challenge for large cities right now okay so we can't build starter homes we can't build luxury

00:22:06.560 homes so now if i'm sitting there and i want a better life for my family i am looking for outlier

00:22:13.200 areas to move to whether they're in canada or outside of can yeah so now i'm starting to look

00:22:17.520 around saying okay i have this skill set this skill set is one and i'm a welder fitter oh the

00:22:22.800 u.s needs water filters right i can move to okay colorado oh colorado's beautiful or you can go to

00:22:30.160 thunder bay because they're building the or go to thunder bay so now i have a decision point and i

00:22:34.240 make that okay i leave right they go out and they say okay we're going to let four more people come

00:22:39.840 into canada but those former people who are coming into the major city can't afford to buy anything

00:22:45.680 so they have to start the struggle all over again so off they go and they're trying to they're trying

00:22:51.360 to move through the you know they're doing great they're trying to move along excuse me i'm getting

00:22:58.560 choked up just thinking about it sorry paul you know it's a great point because my my grandfather

00:23:04.960 came to the country in the 1920s from germany with like 20 ball 20 canadian in his pocket yeah

00:23:11.280 and that's the old immigrant story you show up on the shores yes with not a lot you have a work

00:23:17.120 ethic and a desire to become canadian and build a life here but you bought he bought so what he did

00:23:23.840 is he started out in a rental property probably had two people in the rental property then when

00:23:28.400 he got enough money put a down payment on he had his first starter home he he was probably good

00:23:32.880 with his hands so he kind of struggled through put his own roof on shingled did all kind of the hard

00:23:38.240 labor to get that house to point then that new family was coming behind him bought that that

00:23:43.440 house off him he moved one up one up one up right and then until he got to the in his life he only

00:23:51.120 got to the two bedroom one bathroom home you know like my baby did better i don't know but no i was

00:23:57.920 was gonna when you're done i was gonna tell you actually what he did okay he was a meat packer

00:24:02.100 and a meat cutter canada packers he took the pallets they were throwing out took the nails

00:24:06.700 out and used the wood to build his own home wow in halifax oh my goodness and he used dry seaweed

00:24:12.900 for insulation see and so now in a lot of ways we're going full circle paul to people small homes

00:24:22.800 uh modular homes building their own place going to remote communities in canada so they can have

00:24:29.400 a place to live well and i'm with you but then what happens to the major cities so that's where

00:24:34.820 they erode well how could their tax base is going to go well of course because their tax base goes

00:24:40.700 down yeah we we're even starting see this is the slippery slope that i worry about and i i've said

00:24:46.080 it on other shows when i start seeing uh municipalities going you know we're just going

00:24:51.300 to waive development fees i'm like okay you're gonna wait because bond the city bond north of

00:24:56.140 toronto just did that oh mississauga just did it yeah so a number of communities we're gonna waive

00:24:59.800 oh we did a show and actually all of canada's done it oh is that right everywhere right across

00:25:04.700 canada the communities across canada have done it in every single province territory have waived

00:25:09.340 development interesting so now they're waiving development fees that's fine you might get stuff

00:25:15.540 built but quite frankly your infrastructure starts to erode so now as people have to economically

00:25:20.920 or socially start to migrate because they want a better life, a happier life, they leave the cities.

00:25:26.620 Then you have a tax base that is lower coming behind them because they're starting again, right?

00:25:32.420 So you not only have the infrastructure eroding, you have the cost, the income base eroding.

00:25:37.440 So you have the perfect storm for what do you have?

00:25:41.200 You have erosion of your major cities.

00:25:43.660 You have crime because, quite frankly, it doesn't make sense to have,

00:25:48.160 as all these things are happening

00:25:50.700 and I can't get into the starter home I'm ever

00:25:52.680 at some point you start to say

00:25:54.800 okay is it worth me working really hard

00:25:56.800 because if I don't need to work very hard

00:25:58.640 I start to work off the social system

00:26:00.380 I work off the social system

00:26:01.860 it's erosion of your major cities

00:26:03.980 I don't think this is

00:26:05.580 I hear a lot of the platitudes

00:26:08.100 and the word salads from the politicians

00:26:10.080 about we're going to do this and do that

00:26:11.660 and I'm talking mayors, regional councillors

00:26:14.380 premiers and prime ministers

00:26:16.240 and politicians

00:26:16.920 but i have yet to see like logical concrete plans how to build something work with builders work

00:26:25.740 with the municipalities and build something that is semi-affordable for families i've yet to see

00:26:30.800 it paul well the funny thing is and mike's mike's kind of taking me through it mike uh mike's son

00:26:35.940 uh he's married to a lovely english lady so he went back to uh the the wedding and he came back

00:26:45.820 and he says to me you've got to look what they're doing in the uk the uk is ahead of us of course

00:26:51.100 older country quite frankly more experienced they've already been through a lot of this

00:26:54.940 absolutely the erosion of the cities and everything happening in the suburbs and jobs and economic

00:26:59.020 migration so what they started doing and this is the the king and the the crown they've actually

00:27:05.500 started building these um communities with different levels of housing starter levels

00:27:12.380 mid levels higher levels and they've integrated that's awesome they've integrated them with

00:27:17.500 schools and parks great but they've done this through a planning scenario so i go nuts jim

00:27:23.420 i gotta tell you i go absolutely batty when i listen to these municipalities talk about

00:27:29.500 building another park building another uh uh convention center building another uh music

00:27:36.780 theater another music theater that doesn't get used whole money music theaters don't use i think

00:27:42.460 to myself are we so far out of touch that we don't know where we're at in this spectrum like i think

00:27:48.140 they've lost touch with where they're at so they got to stop and they should be saying okay we need

00:27:53.260 to build not the amenities anymore we're not at amenity level no no no a lot of them are older

00:27:59.660 politicians so here's the challenge here's what we're going through though they're older so they're

00:28:05.500 thinking of themselves you know and i get it people are deep down we're all selfish to a

00:28:10.300 certain extent and we start to think of ourselves well they think when i was growing up i like pools

00:28:15.820 and parks and theaters and this and that is the way it used to be this the way it used to be and

00:28:20.940 if we build those we'll make people happy because they'll come seeing yeah yeah yeah no no we're not

00:28:26.300 there anymore guys what's going to make people happy right now is a beautiful starter home with

00:28:31.820 With access to transit.

00:28:32.960 That is safe.

00:28:33.900 Yes, and you can use mass transit to get to school and shopping and work.

00:28:39.920 And it's an ability to get places.

00:28:42.500 I know I'm in Newmarket, north of Toronto, and there's a huge infrastructure project going on Yonge Street.

00:28:48.100 For people in Canada who don't know, Yonge Street goes from the shores of Lake Ontario.

00:28:52.980 It's the longest street in the world.

00:28:54.480 And they have to redo water mains and sidewalks that are 50, 60 years old.

00:28:58.780 because that's core infrastructure that has to be done.

00:29:02.520 Look what's happening in Calgary.

00:29:04.120 Which is we're waiving development fees of developers,

00:29:07.640 not taking revenue to maintain the infrastructure

00:29:10.660 of that street.

00:29:11.500 But how is Calgary, one of the biggest

00:29:13.840 and most developed cities in North America,

00:29:16.760 had water main breaks every week?

00:29:20.000 And it's unbelievable to me.

00:29:21.280 We did a show on the erosion of the infrastructure

00:29:23.860 of Calgary based on the age

00:29:26.100 and and the correlation to salt use yeah right we did that show and quite frankly but it's

00:29:32.020 everywhere in canada we all get everywhere it's all eroding and we have no choice but

00:29:36.260 like every five to ten years do major infrastructure work we don't have a choice

00:29:40.180 but look at the roads and potholes in this country after this winter this year but the

00:29:44.820 i guess jim where i'm going with this the models across globally across the world that have done

00:29:50.820 this whether we go to the uk whether we go to italy whether we go to switzerland or sweden

00:29:57.220 are happening so and you know i bring this up and i'm sorry i sound like a broken record but on

00:30:02.500 every bloody show come on let's get a plan together and figure this out because people are already

00:30:09.460 doing it let's look at countries i don't care what country it is what community what continent it is

00:30:16.020 here's here's what they did let's adapt it use it make it our own yeah and go hey there's a subway

00:30:22.980 stop there's a bus stop there's a school there's shopping there's a the starter the mid let's lay

00:30:28.740 it out and work together there's too much intelligence and money and acumen in this

00:30:33.620 country not to make something like that possible they're just i can't imagine i'm with it we've

00:30:37.860 done private public partnerships before we've made them work yeah let's do more let's do more

00:30:43.140 That's why we watch Paul. He's got all the answers.

00:31:13.140 of government and still be a patriot it's gratitude to your country of course i'm a patriot

00:31:18.500 i'm canadian it's my home well actually true patriot love is the mission

True Patriot Love - March 25, 2026

The Death Of A Starter Home： Canada's Housing Reality Check

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