Extremely outdated (2009) paper with stale data now irrelevant.
It most certainly is not.
Let's be clear, there has not been significant rental construction in 2 generations in Ontario.
The reduction that may currently be happening is off a very small number to start.
The current new construction is almost entirely contemplated as high-end-of-market.
Which is to say rents at or above $2,000 per month for a 1 bdrm.
Meaning they will have no material affect on the supply of affordable rental housing to the average person.
My point in citing the report was not to suggest these were contemporaneous causes of the current downtown.
Rather, it was to suggest that the current downturn is meaningless in the discussion of adequate supply of housing meeting the needs of median-income (or below) residents.
The drastic change in new supply coming on stream was in the 1970s, not in the last six months.
That change occurred in/around the time of rent control being introduced, but it also happened throughout the western world and was a product of various other factors noted in the report.
Rent control likely was a contributing factor, but hardly the key.
Natural rent control occurs when supply is adequate, and landlords compete.
The market is currently incapable of increasing supply enough, at a price point many can afford, to deliver a competitive market place.
To bring that about would require a whole different set of policy changes, some, but not all of which, are identified in the cited report.