Dear Editor:
RE: Disturbing math, Aug. 24.
I found myself laughing out loud a bit when reading Jim McClure’s letter, wherein he claims that it is impossible for Canada to build five housing units every minute of the year.
I imagined Mr. McClure standing on a new subdivision street watching five basements being dug by excavators and expecting all five houses to be completed in a minute.
I think this reader misses out on the perspective that national economies of scale can bring to “doing a little of his arithmetic,” because a simple search of Stats Canada’s housing data reveals that, during the mid 1970s, and during the late 1980s, and shortly after the turn of the last century, Canada was building approximately one housing unit every two minutes of every day of the year during each of these time periods. So, I don’t see why building five units every minute of the year would be a “Biblical fable” during the current decade; mind you, without even sacrificing Greenbelt areas!
What we are witnessing in Biblical proportions now though are repeated migrations of essentially whole population groups to new areas of the globe. Millions of people are fleeing war, famine, economic collapse and the consequential horrendous living conditions where their only choice is to migrate.
Indeed, one way to address these humanitarian disasters may be for Canada to build five housing units every minute of the year (easily done), and another way to address these crises is to change the global geopolitical culture (not so easily done). Of course, that would be the topic for another series of letters to the editor.
David Fast,
Ariss