The margin isn't there.

A Nov. 18, 2023, Times Colonist article, "Affordable housing component no longer required for Foul Bay townhouse development," reported that "the margin isn't there" for a for-profit developer to build affordable housing.

This is hardly a surprise, as a Nov. 13, 2023, CBC News article, "Road to building more multiplex homes in B.C. could be bumpy, experts say, as similar plan in U.S. halted," reported that "historically, building multiplex dwellings hasn't proven to be profitable for developers."

And, according to a Nov. 29, 2012, Western Investor article, "Developers aim small to score big," "Industry insiders have long held that the economic case hasn't existed for purpose-built rental accommodation."

More admissions by the private sector that it is incapable of building affordable housing abound, reason being that the private sector is not in the business of housing people; it is in the business of making money. This is why the lion's share of dwellings built in the last 30 years are upscale condos, not purpose-built affordable workforce housing.

Only government, which by keeping the cost of living low and thus reducing upward pressure on wages, and prices, in addition to possessing the financial power to build affordable workforce housing, which it did in Canada on a large scale from WWII through 1993, has a tangible interest in doing so.

Housing that the private sector does have the capability to build is, by its own admission, beyond the reach of the vast majority of working Canadians; and yet the argument is made again and again that building "market rate" housing will make housing more affordable.

It is time for policy makers to listen finally to the for-profit development community's own words, stop sanctioning the construction of for-profit housing, and undertake a massive publicly financed buildout of affordable workforce housing.