The Broadbent Institute is pleased to announce Jennifer Yin Barrett as the organization’s new Senior Director of Strategy and Operations.

Jennifer comes to the Institute with over a decade of experience in strategic leadership at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

She served as the Director of Community Engagement for the Official Opposition at Queen's Park, overseeing policy development, stakeholder relations and on-the-ground organizing with diverse communities. Jennifer leads the delivery of the Progress Summit, as well as the Emerging Leaders Program, and looks forward to expanding the Institute's convening, training and exchange of ideas within the growing progressive movement.

On the appointment of Yin Barrett to the new Senior Director role, Executive Director Jen Hassum says, “I’m excited to welcome Jenn, with her wealth of campaign organizing and community engagement experience. Her expertise and planning will help the Institute implement and expand our progressive programming, paving the way for our movement to build a better society.”

A graduate of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, Jennifer balances her time between Toronto and Ottawa.

Industrial policy should be designed to achieve Canada’s societally relevant goals—not as a defensive response to American events.

Download the full policy brief

Each year, in partnership with the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, and former MP and city councillor Olivia Chow, the Broadbent Institute has the honour of awarding the Jack Layton Progress Prize and Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research at the annual Progress Summit.

This year’s shortlist of Layton and Taylor Prize nominees represented an inspiring field of policy thinkers who have had a demonstrable impact on policy making, and activists who are organizing and achieving social change in Canada.

Photo by Narciso Arellano on Unsplash

As the Ontario government begins to undertake the task of addressing housing affordability in the province, it is important to consider both long-term and short-term change. To relieve the current housing crisis, the government needs to take immediate action to curb real estate investment and limit the negative impacts of existing investors. However, to ensure that similar housing affordability crises do not reoccur in the long-term future, the Ontario government also needs to introduce new models of housing that decommodify affordable dwellings, rather than expecting for-profit actors to provide market-led solutions.

This paper will present a variety of solutions available to policymakers for combatting the financialization of housing. Rather than recommending one particular course of action, this paper will demonstrate how a suite of policies can be implemented jointly for the most effective results.

While this paper will focus on the provincial regulation of real estate investment and combating financialization, addressing the housing crisis and creating sustainable affordable housing in Ontario will require many considerations beyond increasing housing supply. The federal government and municipal governments are key partners in any housing initiatives. Further, zoning policies and the regulation of developers and construction practices all play a large role in the housing system.

Download and read the full report.

Watch the full presentation of the report by author Tsahai Carter at Progress Summit 2023.