During Krushchev’s reign in the Soviet Union, the state embarked on a massive residential building spree which was so ineptly carried out that Russians referred to the buildings as khrushchebys, which is a play on the Russian word for slum. Fast forward to 2023, and the Trudeau government has unveiled its own version of centrally planned housing development.
It’s not that the federal government is going to give you a house, but they will provide you with an architect at taxpayer expense to create pre-approved blueprints which they are certain you will love.
“The catalogue of pre-approved designs, is going to be tied to existing building codes — the National Building Code, which we will seek to make changes to in the future — but will also be designed to mirror the requirements of provincial building codes that are implemented across the country,” he said.
“We’re going to ensure that the pre-approved designs meet the standards to access CMHC programs so we can reduce the administrative barriers on applicants who are seeking to go through the process.”
Another layer in the bureaucracy to build a house.
Have they learned nothing?
One track pony.
The people are as dumb as a bag of rocks.
Is the lack of house plans really the bottleneck to getting more homes built? Good to see the Liberals went right at the heart of the problem and solved it so perfectly.
RNrn
In a discussion with an architect over this issue, he told me that all federal plans would abide by provincial building codes. I pointed out that my municipality requires concrete piles under a basement, while the neighboring one doesn’t. The only way to address that would be for federal planners to liaise with every single municipality in the nation. When I asked him why federal taxpayers should provide free architectural services for home builders, he told me I was just being selfish. You can already see which reef this ship is going to hit when it sails.
More jobs for Liberal consulting firms.
More opportunities for under the table payments. Note: Liberals don’t use brown bags anymore, that was so Jean Chretien.
SNC Lavalin has an old Eatons catalog of houses
Don’t worry, we’ll all be dead of old age before all the bureaucrats of 3-4 levels of government get their sticky paws off the Final Approval.
All plans must be in English and French?
Yes, and the beaver stamp indicating an engineer has looked at the drawings and approved of them, needs to be facing in all 360° directions to indicate acceptance for all possible sides of the sexuality diorama.
The massive urban low cost housing construction program started by the Johnson administration in 1968 worked out no better. In much less than two decades they were referred to dismissively as “The Projects”. By the end of that period, many of the buildings had been so badly built that they had to be torn down.
When the “victory houses” were built, they were for those who provided victory in the foreign war, there was something they’d earned in that process that is very much lacking from the current crop of invaders.
What have the millions of new canadians brought? The recently in the news protests of how Israel is dealing with the terrorists on their doorsteps. Are the homeowners of Canada aware that they’ll be subsidising new homes for those who have not earned anything?
It pleases me that insurance rates for the small houses, and simplified drawings will be available, but is the federal gov’t aware of what has occurred in the building trades over the past few decades? As well as how different these regulations are from how houses were built in the 50’s ? There are 100’s of pages of regulations in the various building codes which will still apply… ask the CSA people about those! How many electricians, plumbers, carpenters, will be jumping at the chance to build cut rate homes? And with the crunch on now for trades people, will there be a bidding war for those tradespeople?
The tradespeople are not going to be jumping on board to build cut rate homes for less money, none of the new Canadians are actually qualified to do this work, and not very many of them show up to work outside in the winter.
There’s no incentive to working for less incentive / $.
Actually, will these houses be for the ex inhabitants of Gaza?
Are they burn proof? I think they’ll need to be, I’ve seen their work.
I am sure all these new buildings will only contain the highest quality CSA Tested and Approved parts.
Because long time readers of this blog know how much that meant.
Like most socialist idea, it sound good in the planning room but the reality always exposes the weaknesses.
With good old guvvermint input, expect corruption, cronyism and soaring costs.
They’re comparing the new program to veteran’s housing in the 40’s and 50’s, but those were very simple 600-800 square foot houses, many of them are still standing here, and they were built cheap for people who deserved it. Marc makes a very good point, a lot of these houses will go to people who never contributed anything to this country. Instead of a WW2 vet who stormed ashore on D-day, we’ll house a Palestinian “refugee” who was a warrior for Hamas.
Only question now is; which Liberal friendly companies will benefit from this boondoggle.
The usual companies, like SNC Lavelin or whatever they are called now, and Baylis Medical, and CGH consulting…
“Moffatt believes that builders using standardized designs should lead to more favourable terms from lenders and insurance companies.
“Imagine if you wanted car insurance and you were trying to go to your insurer on a type of car that they had never seen before, that you’d put together yourself,” he said.
“They would have a lot of trouble pricing that insurance.””
Amazingly, insurance companies already understand how to price insurance on housing, they have lots of experience with it…
I think CMHC already has a stockpile of housing plans used when there was a boom in the late 50s and 60s. It was to help small builders who didn’t have designers or architects and the plans came with full specs on how many studs were needed, how many sheets of drywall, etc. The builder could cost it out using local prices and instead of building two or three custom built homes every year, with these plans could build 15 homes. Look at any 1960s suburb anywhere where their was a building boom, and you will see the same houses built throughout. My house is duplicated at tleast 8 times in my subdivision. Dust those plans off, no need to invent things over
Frozen Communist Shithole. Spawn of Stalin.
I’ve seen those residential structures in the Czech Republic.
Command Economy.
Dear Leader has a glorious 5 year plan.
You will obey Dear Leader.
or Dear Leader will hurt you.
Because Dear Leader loves you.
Canadians are so corrupt and stupid,that too many of them will see this idiocy as “Government Helping”..
All that stands between you and a truly crappy house(or any other product) is Buyer Beware.
All these millions of pages of Rules,Regulation and bureaucratic meddling exist to blind the buyer .
.
Selling a massively expensive belief that you are being protected..
Suckers.
CSA Canadian Standards Association looks just like Chinese Standards Association..
Both say C.S.A. on the sticker.
All Canadian Regs say is “Must have CSA approval”..
Stupid roundeyes.
Everything government touches,turn to shit.
Canadians are really going to love their “Government Approved Homes”.
Just hand out shipping containers for quick, affordable housing. Families are eligible for two containers to make a double-wide.
Some assembly required.
There is no doubt that these various plans will all have the latest in green stupidity baked into them. Tiny windows, air source heat pumps, air to air heat exchangers, and electric vehicle chargers.
Yeh, the problem is the lack of plans. The largest cost in building a house or anything else is the cost of government in taxes and regulations. The success of this program will be dividing the additional cost by number of houses produced. I am predicting million dollar houses. These clowns incompetence is only exceeded by their corruption.