Due to a sharp imbalance between demand and supply fuelled by factors such as population growth and low interest rates, there will be no quick fix for Canada’s housing crisis, the House of Commons Finance Committee heard on Jan. 24. “The overwhelming cause of the deterioration of affordability lies in a structural imbalance between the number of residents versus the number of dwellings to house,” Scotiabank vice-president and chief economist Jean-François Perrault told the committee. “The very rapid pace of population growth observed since 2015 has not been matched by a commensurate increase in supply of homes, resulting in a decline in the number of homes per capita since 2016.” Data from Immigration Canada and Statistics Canada shows that from 2011 to 2016, Canada accepted an average of 202,012 new immigrants per year. From 2015, when the Liberal Party took power, and until 2021, there has been an average of …