New study says cutting red tape won't fix Quebec's housing crisis

A new study from Montreal's Institut de recherche et d'informations socioéconomiques (IRIS) says bureaucracy and red tape aren't the main obstacles to solving Quebec's housing crisis.

Researchers from the institute looked at trends in the housing sector over the last 20 years and concluded that the industry has thrived under existing rules.

"There have been historical levels of investment in the housing market, either in the mortgage market, housing construction, housing renovation — everything has been very lively," Louis Gaudreau, one of the study's co-authors, told CBC News in an interview Monday.

"This happened with the regulations that are in place right now, and still the housing crisis has deepened and prices have gone up," Gaudreau said.

"What we say is maybe some red tape could be removed, but it won't necessarily be an answer to the crisis."

Study says developers are the problem

Governments have been focusing on cutting red tape as of late.

Earlier this year, the province passed legislation allowing municipalities to ignore their own bylaws in order to fast-track some development projects.

And last month the city of Montreal introduced measures to try to reduce delays for obtaining building permits.

Gaudreau said those efforts are misguided, and that the real obstacle to affordable housing in Quebec has been developers' lack of willingness to build it.

"It's been very difficult to convince the private sector to invest in really affordable housing," Gaudreau said. 

"In Quebec we've built mostly single-family homes and condominiums, and when rental housing has been built, it's been very expensive," he said.

"We didn't build social housing, which is where the real need is," Gaudreau said.

In Montreal, efforts to spur developers to build affordable housing have mostly failed.

Gaudreau said the real solution is for governments to bypass developers altogether.

"The only way that has succeeded in producing really affordable housing is public investment housing construction and housing development," he said.

Gaudreau said governments should partner with non-profit organizations to increase the amount of non-profit housing projects in the market.

"Cutting red tape wouldn't hurt, but until now it's had no effect on the price of housing," Gaudreau said.

"If we want the real solution to this crisis, we must find a way collectively to lower prices," he said.

Developers say need is great and process too slow

Guillaume Houle, spokesperson for Quebec's largest association of housing contractors, l'Association de la construction du Québec (ACQ), disagreed with many of the IRIS study's conclusions.

Houle told CBC News in an interview Monday that builders in Quebec are in fact building more rental units than ever right now, but that they can't keep pace with demand because of restrictive regulations.

"We need to double construction in the residential sector," Houle said.

"Maybe in the past, we didn't build enough social housing. But we need to construct every kind of housing right now," Houle said.

Houle agreed with Gaudreau that governments should be investing more in social housing. But he said they'll still need the expertise of developers and builders to make projects happen, and that cutting red tape certainly won't hurt.

"We have to construct faster than ever to respond to all the needs, and for that we need to have our permits faster," Houle said.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has strongly advocated cutting red tape, also commented on the IRIS study on the social media platform X.

"The status quo is more government housing programs while bureaucracy blocks private construction. The result? Prices have doubled," Poilievre said.

His solution is to punish what he calls "incompetent" mayors who block construction by withholding federal funding, while rewarding municipalities that expedite permits.

A spokesperson for Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau said the minister would take time to review the study before commenting.