Welcome back to Metropolis, CUTV’s monthly live political talk show, where we outline the most important developments that are of interest to Montrealers.

Speaking of developments, For June’s episode we bring back urban planning researcher Gavin Armitage-Ackerman to discuss a slew of headlines surrounding Projet Montreal’s shiny plan for the city entitled, Montreal 2050. this plan while ambitious is more of a vision document than anything. In it we see the core of Projet Montreal’s approach, one of market urbanism, as Armitage-Ackerman labels it.

One part of the 2050 plan is the elimination of mandatory minimum parking spots. This would make Montréal he largest city in North America to eliminate a system that Armitage-Ackerman says is antiquated. Essentially, mandatory minimum parking makes it so that any new construction must create a certain amount of parking spots for each person that would inhabit the building. Many urbanists applaud this move as do developers and small business owners. The idea is that red tape is being removed and developers will be free to decide how to use land while not being limited by car-centric policy.

Armitage-Ackerman says this will be excellent news for social.

A recent article in CBC brings attention to a report published by RCLALQ where they claim that building more supply will not solve the housing crisis. Armitage-Ackerman who has written on this idea prior says this article was a surprisingly good one given the topic’s usual approach. The widely held assumption is that the housing crisis is the result of not building enough when some like RCLALQ and Armitage-Ackerman blame the profit factor that leads housing developers to build more luxury condos than social housing. Montreal 2050 is a classic example of the kind of market urbanism that will not solve the housing crisis.