The way to solve the hous-
ing crisis in Canada is to build
satellite cities away from ur-
ban industrial and business
centres, right?

The cities will provide you
with a home of your own, at
a price you can afford, in a
community where you feel
you belong, right?

The way to get the cities
built is to encourage private
developers by financial aid
and concessions at the federal,
provincial, and local levels,
right?

ALL WRONG

Wrong on all three counts,
according to Walter Stewart
of Maclean’s Magazine. In the
February, 1970, issue of the
magazine, Stewart examines
Canada’s first satellite city,
Bramalea, on the outskirts of
Toronto.

After a month investigating
Bramalea, Stewart found
“three things, all negative”:

e The greed of private de-
velopers is no guide for com-
munity planning;

© Housing lots in Canada
are expensive because of
simple, ordinary greed, and
for no other reason; and

e If governments want to
bring housing costs down,
they can’t merely bankroll
land speculators, but must
“set into the land- bank busi-
ness themselves.”

BRAMALEA’S TROUBLE

The trouble with Brama-
lea? You might be a mile
from the nearest store, with

no public transit. No movies,
theatres, bars, hotels, little
shops, museums, art galleries.
A big tract of look-alike
houses perched on bulldozed
land. A suburb, not a satel-
lite city. A bedroom for 20,-
000 people.

The trouble with Brama-
lea? No local government.
The Chinguacousy Township
Council. meets in Snelgrove,
12 miles away.

The trouble with Brama-
lea? It’s what Stewart de-
scribes as a “company town.”
“The developer owns a lot of
it, and a lot of what he does
not own, he controls, and
much of what he doesn’t con-
trol pays him a percentage to
operate.”

In fact, one of the fat-cat
developers, Arthur Arm-
strong, bragged in a building-
magazine article that “Every
decision has been based on
economic rather than aesthe-
tic reasons.”

QUESTION OF STORES

Take the question of stores.
Bramalea, with a population
of 20 thousand now, 50 thou-
sand in five years, 100 thou-
sand soon, has three shopping
centres with 21 stores. Near-
by Streetsville, with 6,300
people, has 71 stores.

The Bramalea centres are
all owned by the development
company. Most lessees pay —
on top of their rent — a per-
centage of gross sales.

Perhaps that is why there’s

‘only one gas station, although

: : ree Pe
Re gts EMRE rahe
~ 7 -

Streetsville has six. Perhaps
that’s why a pay - for - itself
arena and sports program is
all the “cultural” activity, ex-
cept for a teeny library in a
bank basement.

The developers made pots
of instant profits via stock op-
tions. What about the home-
owner?

LOT THROUGH HOME

If he bought his lot through
“HOME” (the Ontario gov-
ernment’s Home Ownership
Made Easy plan), he bought
an $8,000 lot from the Ontario
Housing Corporation for $9,-
200 or leased it for $43.50 a
month.

If he leased over the usual
35-year mortgage, he ends up
paying $18,270 for a postage-
stamp hunk of turf that he
still doesn’t own.

But the developers make
money FIVE WAYS. They
used $18.4 million in Ontario
money to. pay off responsibil-
ity for not providing enough
industrial assessment (a spe-
cial deal of $11 million in pen-
alties was worked out), then
pocketed the profit.

They made a further profit
on their own 1,400 lots, which
will sell for over $10 million.
They made another profit by
building and selling all houses
on Bramalea land, and half
the town houses on OHC land.

The fourth profit comes
from the increased value of
over 4,000 undeveloped acres.
These acres are now being
farmed by a subsidiary, which
produces income AND keeps

THE CHANGE IN HOUSING COST
s | 1969
Bae MATERIALS
ON-SITE
eines MATERIALS LABOR
LABOR
D OVERHEAD LAND
OVERHEAD ap iis : NE
OT FINANCING PROFIT FINANCING
aoe 4949 House: $9,790 Average 1969 House: $20,534

_—_——— zi

assessment low — the
profit.

GOD KNOWS
And what if industrial a

sessment doesn’t rise to cove
home assessment? 1
million deal relieved the d
velopers of responsibiliaaa
though . it was designed {
cover matters only until #
end. of 1974. After - 1974? ce d
knows. ;

The financial and politi .
jiggery -pokery between th
developers and provincial an
local authorities, as Stewar
describes it, boggles the n
Thanks to a second H
purchase, an acre which
a maximum of $20,000 7
ing servicing sells for es

“And that,” says Stew:
“is one reason why hous
costs so much.”

FINANCIAL MOONSHINES

Here is Stewart’s timetak .
for the financial moonshin

The price of an a )
$42,805 mark in Jar
recently released.

This is $7,000 h
price of six yoaras

In January otf
area sold for ror $21.8 *

creases. A lot w
$16,000 to $18,(
spokesman.

Sold’ for
$28,000.

which made the deve op
rich:

Alan Taylor and 7
Armstrong are now the t
dogs in Bramalea, but }
in 1956 the company —
owned mainly by a oa
three real estate spe C
a broker, and a business ©
ecutive.

They approached Cy is
Clark, reeve of acou
Township from 1954 to »
summer, in 1956, with a J
posal to build. the
city on a block of 4,
they’d bought from