Nelson: Tsuut’ina housing plan offers hope while Carney dithers

This hints at a new future: not one so consumed by guilt and victimhood

Our Tsuut’ina neighbours are providing a better example of what it will take to solve this country’s desperate housing shortage than anything Mark Carney and his Liberal government have so far shown. That’s because they have a solid plan to build thousands of homes on expanded reserve land, which takes in some exquisite countryside, situated on the edge of the foothills, facing the majestic Rocky Mountains. And they’ve financial skin in the game.

If the recently announced partnership with a Calgary developer falls flat, it isn’t Canadian taxpayers on the hook. That’s why it’ll likely succeed. Meanwhile, Carney, who pledged during last year’s federal election that his government would build homes faster than at any time since the Second World War, increasingly seems like a character exposed by that old Western put-down: all hat, no cattle.

The Grits promised half a million new homes would arise across the country every year. This would solve a crisis of their own making, when opening wide the doors to rampant immigration without figuring those newcomers needed a place to stay. The first knee-jerk reaction was to temporarily slam the immigration door shut and encourage many of those recently arrived as students or temporary workers to return to whence they came.

So while the government has completely reversed its previous immigration policy to stem demand, it also messed up the other side of the housing equation by failing to increase supply. Canada’s on track to only build about 250,000 homes this year — exactly half of what Carney promised and a number simply matching the same sad level it’s sat at for years. This failure has led to desperate measures, such as trying to bribe various city councils — Calgary included — to do away with long-standing zoning regulations and thereby ignite a firestorm of anger in single-family neighbourhoods suddenly threatened with row housing and four-plexes as adjoining residences.

It’s an ongoing housing catastrophe, resulting in so many young Canadians left without hope of ever leaving their parents’ basements. That’s why the Tsuut’ina initiative is so welcome. The reserve is partnering with Qualico Communities to eventually develop a large section of land north of the reserve.

So far, a 376-hectare parcel is secured, with another 595 hectares under negotiation. Construction should start in 2028 and, when fully built, should provide enough homes for 10,000 people. While residents would own the homes, the land title would remain with the Nation, the same as Redwood Meadows near Bragg Creek.

No doubt some would-be buyers might balk at this, though a similar arrangement in Banff with leases held by Parks Canada hasn’t prevented that townsite from becoming a much-desired spot for homeowners. Of course there are naysayers. But then Indigenous people can’t win with some folk — they’re either accused of sitting around waiting for a government handout or instead becoming sneaky landlords out to trick innocent Canadians.

But isn’t such an Indigenous-driven housing development something to applaud? It’s certainly targeting a need and, in doing so, uses the Nation’s own financing. If it fails, then Tsuut’ina is on the hook, not the taxpayer, unlike the plan for a new oil pipeline, for example.

This moves beyond the quagmire of Indigenous reconciliation, where mumbling endless platitudes while stuck in a painful status quo has become the Canadian way. This hints at a new future: not one so consumed by guilt and victimhood that the present becomes victim to the past. Maybe one day, the True North could finally be strong and free.

That it also highlights just how poor a job the government of Canada’s doing in solving this housing debacle is an added reason to celebrate our neighbours. Wish them success. Chris Nelson is a weekly columnist.