Solutions to housing crisis ‘hidden in plain sight,’ says planning prof turned filmmaker [video]

A housing researcher hopes that his new documentary will help people recognize that solutions to the housing crisis are within reach.

“I think my goal is to leave people with the idea that maybe the solutions to the housing crisis are already happening,” says Brian Doucet, a filmmaker and associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning. “Maybe they’re hidden in plain sight.”

Doucet recently launched his feature-length documentary, titled “Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing.”

Screenings of the documentary are taking place across the country, and the New Brunswick premiere is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Moncton Public Library.

The event will also feature a panel with New Brunswick-based housing researchers including Matthew Hayes of St. Thomas University and Julia Woodhall-Melnik and Tobin LeBlanc Haley of the University of New Brunswick. (LeBlanc Haley is a member of the NB Media Co-op board of directors).

The film is billed as a journey that takes viewers across the country “to learn about policies, programs and projects that are already happening and already having a positive impact on addressing the housing crisis.”

It features interviews with more than 30 people involved in housing, ranging from policymakers and politicians to residents and housing advocates.

Doucet argues that housing in Canada is treated as a human right but also a speculative commodity that investors use to extract wealth, resulting in a perpetual state of crisis.

“It can’t succeed at both,” he said in an interview. “We cannot have a lucrative source of wealth for some and shelter for all.”

In making the film, he looked for initiatives “that actively try to shift that pendulum… away from speculation towards housing as a human right.”

Examples include more robust forms of rent control and projects that increase the non-market housing stock. Social housing accounts for less than five per cent of the total housing stock in Canada, a relatively low proportion compared to other industrialized counties.

The film examines policies in places like Prince Edward Island, where a two per cent annual rent cap is tied to the unit, not the renter.

“In other words, if you’re renting an apartment for $1,000 a month, when if you leave… that’s still gonna be $1,000 or maybe $1,050 a month,” Doucet explained.

In New Brunswick, a three per cent rent cap is in place. However, there is no legal limit on how much the landlord can raise the rent for a new tenant. Tenants’ rights campaigners say that loophole gives landlords an incentive to evict tenants.

Moncton rent up 70 per cent since 2019

The cost of housing remains a major issue in Moncton, although recent data shows that it’s among 24 census metropolitan areas across the country where rent has declined over the past year. 

Asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Moncton Metropolitan area went down by 1.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, compared to the same period the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.

Meanwhile, asking rent went up by 0.6 per cent in Saint John and by 5.7 per cent in Fredericton during the same period.

More generally, prices have massively spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the average asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Metro Moncton was $900 in Q3 2019, compared to $1,530 by Q3 2025, an increase of 70 per cent.

Click here to register for the Moncton premiere of “Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing.” The screening, followed by a panel discussion, will take place at the Moncton Public Library on Sunday, January 11 at 1 p.m.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.