Open-concept floor plans. Roads designed for peak traffic at peak times on week days. Apartments built for sleeping and eating but not extended isolation. Sidewalks built for...closeness. This pandemic has cast a spotlight on the nature of how we design our homes, offices and cities. It's left huge swaths of space empty, and crammed some people into tiny boxes.

There are design and planning lessons we can learn from what we're seeing now that could impact the way we live forever—but only if we want them to. What does a city look like after it's been changed by a year of social distancing? And which of those changes will become permanent?

GUEST: Toon Dreessen, president of Architects DCA; former president of Ontario Association of Architects

How COVID-19 could change our cities forever. Or not.

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By far the biggest part of the federal budget is an ambitious plan that the Liberal government claims will not only hit the targeted estimate of homes Canada needs, but will blow right past it. You'd be forgiven some skepticism, since the Prime Minister stated less than a year ago that housing "isn't a primary federal responsibility." A lot has changed since then, especially the government's polling numbers.

But politics aside, what's in this plan? How exactly does the government think it can hit its targets? What does one of the country's leading housing policy analysts think of those solutions? What's in this plan that will or won't solve the housing crisis in the next decade? And what's in it to help people afford homes right now?

GUEST: Mike Moffatt, Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute; Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at Ivey Business School, Western University

Can Canada really build 3.9 million homes by 2031?

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's budget announcement, the federal government has been hammering a message that this document would make life more affordable for Canadians. 

Does it accomplish that? What's in here that will matter to your wallet in the months to come? What takes aim at trying to bring down the cost of living over the next several years? And who's going to end up paying for all this?

GUEST: Jim Stanford, economist and Director of The Centre for Future Work

What the federal budget means for you

The former Calgary mayor is beloved by many in the province. He might well be the favourite in the race to succeed Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP. But he's never really been involved with the party, and his trademark 'purple' comes from blending Liberal red and Conservative blue. No orange in sight.But his campaign will force some fascinating questions onto the party, both in Alberta and nationally. Questions that have been bubbling just below the surface for the past couple of elections, and are making insiders wonder about the future of a unified national NDP...

GUEST: Graham Thomson, Alberta-based political analyst

Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

It can be easy, given our changing climate, not to worry much about events that aren't extreme. It's not flooding? No hurricanes or heat waves or wildfires? Just a little rain?! Well, we can live with that. And maybe we can, but in the Arctic, a lot of things can't.

In recent years, snowfall has been replaced with rainfall more and more often. And sure, they're just different types of moisture, but the impact is fascinating and profound. And has a ton of implications for both Canadians in the region, and every other creature that makes its home up there.

GUEST: Ed Struzik, writing in The Tyee

It's raining in the Arctic. That's ... not good.

It was one of the strangest scandals in recent Canadian history, located right at the spot where the housing crisis collides with the climate crisis. From allegations of political corruption and  RCMP investigations to endangered species and Las Vegas massages.

Every Monday for the next three weeks, The Big Story, in partnership with The Narwhal, will take you into the heart of the Greenbelt scandal that rocked Ontario, speaking to the people who broke the story and people who lived it. If you think you know what happened... you don't know it all.

Hosted by Emma McIntosh, investigative reporter with The Narwhal.

How COVID-19 could change our cities forever. Or not.

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