Reading Canada Lands Company against the archive

Canada Lands Company is arguably the least known yet most consequential actor at the center of Canadian public land redevelopment, privatization, and commercialization. A state owned enterprise incorporated in 1956 that hit the headlines in 2023 when tasked with addressing a national housing supply shortage by selling surplus government land, Canada Lands led a lively existence across what is often framed as dormant years for the Company. Uncovering the otherwise hidden ideas and practices of Canada Lands Company, this paper engages the methodological approach of Mela Dávila-Freire, art curator and archival scholar, who argues for “reading against the archive.” Translating this method into a geographical political economy of ideation, conjuncture, and context, the paper excavates decades of audited annual reports, Hansard parliamentary proceedings, and Public Accounts documents, identifying how the archives enshrine the Company’s successes, erase its scandals, and enforce occlusive silences over time and across lucrative real estate markets such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.