P.E.I. 'punches above its weight,' national report card on housing policy in Canada suggests

CBC

2 days ago

Social Sharing
There's usually an "uh-oh" moment when you get a report card back, but a national report card on housing shows Prince Edward Island didn't do that bad.
In fact, the report, done by the Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) out of the University of Ottawa, found that P.E.I. "punches above its weight when it comes to housing policy."
With a C+ overall grade, Canada's smallest province tied with Quebec and British Columbia for best overall performance among the provinces.
The report card is based on five major pressure points for housing, with P.E.I.'s grades shown in parentheses:
Family-friendly density and the construction of duplexes and mid-rise apartments (C);
Modernized and better building codes overall (D+);
Factory-built or use of modular housing (C+);
Building homes outside of high-risk areas susceptible to things like climate change (C);
Construction of social housing (A).
That C+ for P.E.I. might seem average, but it's on the higher end on the report card compared to the other provinces, which scored mostly D+ and C-. The Island was at the top of the list with an A for social housing.
Mike Moffatt, the founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative, said he was surprised to see P.E.I. rank so high.
"It kept standing out to us that P.E.I. had a plan or a vision for most of these things," he said during a webinar with CBC News and other journalists Wednesday. "They issued a report, they had a long-term plan on it that had set targets.
"That was a surprise to us … overall there are these series of detailed plans."
Moffatt was referring to P.E.I.'s 2024-2029 housing strategy, released last year.
In it, the provincial government vowed to build 10,000 new homes over that five-year period; increase the supply of social housing; and make it quicker overall for private developers to go from permit to finished product.
When it comes to the top three performing provinces in Canada, Moffatt said, "I probably wouldn't have guessed P.E.I., but it's well-deserved."
National housing crisis
This report from the Missing Middle Initiative is being released against the backdrop of a national movement to build hundreds of thousands of homes in the coming years.
Mark Carney's Liberal federal government has promised a level of housing construction that the country hasn't seen since the Second World War.
On P.E.I., the need for that kind of effort has been felt for years.
A housing crisis has gripped the province since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with vacancy rates floating just barely above zero and housing costs having effectively doubled in the last 10 years.
Where P.E.I. can improve
As with all report cards, there's room for improvement. Moffatt said P.E.I. didn't do as well when it came to promoting building of housing away from areas that are at the whims of climate change, including flood zones.
"You're an Island, right? That's the one area where we were a little bit surprised there wasn't more on," he said.
MMI scored P.E.I. on the lower end of allowing building in areas prone to flooding, with a C rating. It cited the fact that P.E.I. has no binding flood hazard regulation and no hazard zones where regulation or policy stops proposed developments.
What the Island does have, though, is an online tool called CHRIS (Climate Hazard and Risk Information System), which shows coastal areas most at risk of flooding from extreme storm events or gradually rising sea levels — a topic of great interest to people looking to buy or build houses in the province.
That tool is "quite helpful," the report said, "but prohibitions on building in areas prone to flooding must be made stronger."