City building with Jennifer Keesmaat

Uncommons with Nate Erskine-Smith

On this episode, Nate is joined by Jennifer Keesmaat for a discussion around housing, transit, and the roles that each level of government can and should play.
Jennifer is the former Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, she’s worked around the world in urban design, and she’s currently a partner at and co-founder of Markee Developments, doing the work of building affordable housing.
It is past time for all levels of government to deliver on housing and transit. If we don’t, we will see productivity and generational fairness challenges only further exacerbated.
Now, we have a mayoral election ahead of us, and an opportunity for greater ambition here in Toronto. At the provincial and federal levels, we have upcoming budgets, and an opportunity to revisit and reinvest in our National Housing Strategy, for example.
But as I think about Liberal and progressive politics more broadly, we have to send a strong message that we are ready to build and especially to build housing and transit. There is no reason for us to cede that ground to anyone else.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uncommons.ca