As Canadians and active real estate investors and city builders we are keenly focused on Canada’s future, the country’s growth, and its economic and social prosperity.
Coming out of a period of major disruption due to the pandemic and navigating through the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty, we wanted to convene and host a number of expert panels in various industries to discuss what individuals, industry participants and governments should be considering and doing to maintain and enhance Canada’s appeal on the global stage.
Our first event looked at Canada’s appeal as it relates to attracting talent and skilled individuals, capital and companies considering Canada as a place to live, invest and expand business.
Our second discussion considered the importance of available housing and the cost of real estate as a factor in decisions to live, work and invest in major cities like Toronto. The discussion was moderated by Peter Politis, Greybrook Realty Partners CEO, who was joined by three distinguished industry leaders, Stephen Diamond, CEO, DiamondCorp and Chair of Waterfront Toronto, Jennifer Keesmaat, the former Chief City Planner for the City of Toronto and CEO of The Keesmaat Group, and Jordan Robins, EVP and COO, First Capital REIT.
The panel spoke to a very engaged Canadian Business and Toronto Life audience about some of the long-standing challenges and real-time complexities that the development industry is facing in delivering various types of new housing to meet the growing demand. They were also called on to share ideas on how to bring more housing online more expediently and how to deliver housing at more accessible prices.
The panelists discussed the importance of governments creating more incentives to help make it easier for developers to build more housing that is needed and the need to update old policies that prevent increased density in large portions of the City of Toronto.
Jennifer Keesmatt shared her unique perspectives having played an important role as the Chief Planner for the City of Toronto and in her current role as an affordable housing developer. Jennifer’s company is focused on taking advantage of government incentive programs to develop more affordable housing and she shared her experiences thus far and ideas on how to build and deliver more affordable and rent-to-own housing.
The panel was united in their belief that addressing the housing challenges in major cities will require collaboration, alignment, and contributions from everyone involved in the process of bringing new housing to market from developers to planners, councillors, existing residents, lenders, and everyone in between.
After a lively Q and A, the evening concluded with guests enjoying conversation over wine and canapés during the networking portion of the event.
Stay tuned for our next speaker event.
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