VANCOUVER, BC-Greater Vancouver's regional leaders' obsession
with changing people's behaviour through land use planning has
left the region with the least affordable housing and some of
the worst traffic congestion in Canada, according to a new study
released today by independent research organization The Fraser
Institute. "Planners with the Greater Vancouver Regional
District (now Metro Vancouver) narrowly focus on two goals:
avoiding urban sprawl and minimizing automobile driving," said
Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute
specializing in urban issues and public lands and author of
Unliveable Strategies: The Greater Vancouver Regional District
and the Liveable Region Strategic Plan. "But the tools they use
to achieve these goals are essentially a form of social
engineering to change what people want - convenient
transportation and a single family home. Instead, the regional
planners hope people will drive less if roads are congested and
that everyone will happily live in high-density tow