RSVP
Ottawa Housing & Land Meetup
📅 Wed June 24, 2026, 6:30-9 PM
📍 Impact Hub Ottawa, 123 Slater St., 6th Floor (Maps)
Agenda
6:30 • Doors
7:00 • Remarks by Liam Wilkinson & Ken Yang, Common Wealth Canada
7:15 • Monopoly (Landlord’s Game): Ottawa Edition
Dr. Francis K. Peddle, President of the Henry George Foundation of Canada
Mike Bulthuis, Executive Director of the Ottawa Community Land Trust
Brandon Bay, former Chair of Make Housing Affordable
7:45 • Meet & Mingle
Please RSVP so we have an accurate idea of headcount.
Ottawa’s housing crisis starts with land: how we use it, what we allow to be built on it, and who benefits as it rises in value. Join us for a meetup of advocates interested in how land policy can help us build more homes, support affordable housing, reduce speculation, and return publicly created land value to our communities.
Organizing Partners
Common Wealth Canada advances policy ideas that turn publicly created wealth into broad public benefit, including land value return and sovereign wealth funds. Its work focuses on how Canada can capture economic rents from land, natural resources, technology, and finance to build shared prosperity for current and future generations.
The Henry George Foundation of Canada promotes the ideas of economist Henry George, including land value taxation and the public capture of economic rent. Its work connects land, tax reform, and shared prosperity through the goals of a more just, green, and prosperous society.
The Ottawa Community Land Trust is a non-profit working to preserve and increase affordable housing in the Ottawa region. OCLT acquires rental properties, secures land for future housing, and partners with local groups to keep homes affordable for the long term.
Make Housing Affordable is a pro-housing advocacy group in Ottawa working to fix the city’s housing shortage and make life more affordable. Their “Six Big Moves” platform focuses on getting more homes built, fighting sprawl, and pushing policymakers toward practical housing solutions.
Past Common Wealth Meetups
What is land value return?
Land value is generated from the work and investments of the community around it, like public infrastructure and economic activity. We can capture and reinvest some of this publicly created value to fund tax relief for workers and builders; rebates to every household; and housing, transit, or other public needs. We call this land value return (LVR).
Variants of LVR have been successfully implemented all over world including the US, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and right here in Canada.
How can LVR benefit housing and the economy?
By returning more land value to the public, we can realign incentives in our economy to:
→ build more housing and improve affordability
→ discourage vacant, underused, or speculative landholding
→ shift taxes off work, construction, and enterprise
→ fund housing, transit, infrastructure, and public services
→ return wealth to residents through rebates or dividends
For a quick primer, read our 2-Page Brief on Land Value Return.
