Volume One Bookstore is bringing CBC broadcaster and author Gregor Craigie to Duncan United Church Hall on April 8 along with Victoria journalist and author Jack Knox from 7 to 9 p.m., as they delve into Craigie’s newest book Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis.
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Craigie, who lives in Victoria, which happens to have one of the highest-priced housing markets in the country, has been talking to local experts about housing on his daily radio show On The Island for more than 15 years. In his new book he talks about the pressures Canadians are feeling with rising interest and mortgage rates, and even with the recent federal budget commitment to bring more housing online by 2030, he explores how there will still be a shortfall of 3.5 million homes by 2030.
“My main inspiration for writing this book was a sense of despair that communities across this country have become so unaffordable for so many people,” said Craigie. “Not everyone is struggling, of course. People like me, who own our own homes, are relatively lucky. But what about my kids, and my young colleagues? What about all the young people who have given up on the dream of ever owning their own homes? Not only that, but they even wonder if they’ll be able to afford a stable rental apartment to call home. It really is a national crisis, and of course it affects people of all ages. That’s obvious when we see more and more seniors living in their cars or RVs in communities from coast to coast, from the Cowichan Valley to the Annapolis Valley.”
“When we saw that Gregor was publishing a book on the subject of housing in Canada and that there was a chapter on Duncan, we thought that it was very important to bring him to our town to allow our community to hear his ideas and solutions from his experiences in visiting other communities in the world who are doing things in a different way,” said Melanie Watson who is charge of marketing and events with Volume One.
“It is very important in light of the many people in our community who are unhoused, the many people who would like to be housed but cannot afford the current pricing to buy a home and the people who would like to rent but cannot find rentals, or a rental at a price that is sustainable,” said Watson.
Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples is expected to be present to speak with Craigie on stage. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., tickets are $5, or free for the unwaged.
“My hope is that people attending the event will be convinced that the status quo is no longer an option in the country when it comes to housing,” said Craigie. “We can’t just keep doing things the way we’ve been doing for the last three decades. We need to make an awful lot of changes in this country if we’re going to have a lot more affordable housing for our most vulnerable citizens, and a whole new generation coming of age. Canada is like an old fixer-upper with a long list of repairs. The bad news is that we need to do an awful lot of hard work, but the good news is we can do it.”