Maclean's

Canada's national magazine covering current affairs, politics, culture trends, ideas and personalities.

EDITOR’S NOTE • IN THIS ISSUE OF MACLEAN’S

Maclean’s

COMMENTS • READERS WEIGH IN

How Innovation Is Shaping the Future of Small Business in Canada • A unique network of Ontario colleges and universities is helping Canadian businesses facing increasingly intense competition to gain a strategic advantage.

THE INTERVIEWCONVERSATIONS WITH THE NATION’S NEWSMAKERS • The world feels like a ticking time bomb. Jennie Carignan, Canada’s top general, has helped defuse a few of those.

Make Homes Float • In a world where floods are becoming alarmingly frequent, buoyant foundations can keep buildings safely above water.

The North Star • Anna Lambe, star of CBC’s North of North, is exposing the lighter side of Arctic life

A Lament for Canadian Nationalism • To confront Trump’s threats, Canada needs to once again find a common purpose

25 Bold, Entirely Doable Ways To Make Canada Affordable Again

Build Tiny Homes Fast • In a parking lot in Gatineau, Quebec, a village of candy-hued shipping containers is pointing the way out of the homelessness crisis

Get Kids Into the Trades • Giving teens apprenticeships will fill our labour gaps and help build much-needed housing stock

Turn Industrial Relics Into Housing • Canadian cities are full of derelict factories, warehouses and transportation infrastructure stations. Let’s put them back to work.

Fill Up Canada’s Spare Bedrooms • The country’s surplus bedrooms are an untapped weapon in the fight against housing scarcity

Take the Profit out of Housing • European cities are building affordable public housing, supportive housing and co-ops faster, better and more beautifully than us. It’s time to catch up.

MAKE SPACE FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS

Build on Parking Lots • Parking lots occupy massive swathes of valuable urban land. We need to reclaim it.

Make Laneways Livable • The underused alleyways in Canadian cities can be the next frontier for new housing

Speed Up the Trains • High-speed rail can connect inexpensive communities to bustling urban labour markets

Ramp Up Rentals • Multi-unit housing in Canada has been all about condos for years. What we need now is more and better rental homes.

Open Up Public Land • Underused public land could house hundreds of thousands of Canadians—if governments make it accessible

Make Way for Greenfields • Not everyone wants (or can afford) to live in big cities. Luckily, there’s plenty of land right next door.

MAKE APARTMENTS BIGGER

Overhaul Zoning Laws • Municipal governments refuse to allow the housing abundance Canada needs. It’s time for higher orders of government to step in and do something about it.

Build Big on Indigenous Land • First Nations are becoming some of Canada’s most visionary, high-density developers

Print New Neighbourhoods • Developers are using 3D-printing technology as an efficient, climate-friendly building solution

Turn Empty Offices Into Apartments • Calgary’s downtown was devastated by an oil-price crash, then a pandemic. Now it’s turning six million square feet of empty office space into new homes.

Construct Homes on an Assembly Line • Prefab housing will transform archaic building techniques—and produce safer, better, cheaper buildings

Grow Small Towns With Cheap Land • In northern Ontario, the small town of Cochrane is offering new residents parcels of land for $10

RECRUIT MORE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Bring on the Robo-Builders • AI-enabled robots are becoming a fast, cheap and efficient fix for Canada’s construction-labour shortage

Beyond the...