This is simply wrong.
The article goes into details about the profit margins for developers, but they are not the problem.
The problem is the land value appreciation over time.
A recent study by the Cooperative Housing Federation found that coop rents in five major Canadian cities were on average twenty-five percent lower than “market” rents. What’s more, the differential widens over time, with co-op rents becoming one-third lower on average than market rentals.
They're a third lower because they don't increase their prices at all to match the market rate, because the land cost was locked in at the lower rate and unlike private entities they're not trying to maximize profits by matching current value.
Then the article makes the biggest mistake by saying that the government can just do it. Unfortunately there's almost 0 government owned land in cities where people want to live. That means they would have to buy it on the private market. Buying any reasonable amount of land for this would cost an astronomical amount of money, even if you wanted to reach a goal of 10% non-profit housing the land cost alone would bankrupt the government, and 10% isn't enough to significantly drop the overall prices on the market. It would just mean a bunch of people win the lottery and get a low cost unit, and 90% of the population gets no benefit.
The only viable path to affordable housing is by crashing the value of land. The government could do this in multiple ways by implementing policies or taxes. 100% capital gains, or preferably an ongoing Land Value Tax (not the same as a property tax) that is large enough to eclipse any potential increase in value.
Unfortunately those policies are political suicide right now, far too many Canadian voters own a home and are not willing to give up the value they've accumulated in this pyramid scheme.