About the Missing Middle Initiative
The Missing Middle Initiative, housed at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of the Environment, seeks to revive Canada’s urban middle class. We’re devoted to addressing the challenges facing young urban Canadians, who are finding it harder to join the middle class. Through research, a Substack newsletter, thought pieces, videos, and the Missing Middle Podcast, we explore the barriers preventing young Canadians and new families from entering the middle class and the policy solutions needed to help them achieve this.
We are big believers in creating a vision of success — a North Star that can help guide one’s thinking and choices. For Canada’s young, urban middle class, our vision of success is as follows:
Missing Middle Initiative’s North Star: A Canada where every middle-class individual or family, in every city, has a high-quality of life and access to both market-rate rental and market-rate ownership housing options that are affordable, adequate, suitable, resilient, and climate-friendly.
For more information on MMI, please refer to the following links:
Our mission: Details on the strong middle-class Canada we are trying to create.
Our strategy: How we will create a strong middle-class Canada
Our impact: Our success, to date, in creating a strong middle-class Canada.
Our team: The team working towards creating a strong middle-class Canada.
Support us: How you can help us create a strong middle-class Canada.
As well as our knowledge mobilization outlets, including:
Reports: A list of long-form studies and reports, including ones that predate the formation of MMI.
Podcast: Links to the Missing Middle podcast (available in both video and audio versions), video content, and our social media content.
Media: Links to MMI mentions in the mainstream media, along with guest pieces written by MMI staff in outlets from The Globe and Mail to The Toronto Star to The Hub.
Substack archive: An archive of our past Substack posts.
Our History
MMI was launched on January 20, 2025, as a spin-off from the University of Ottawa’s Smart Prosperity Institute, where MMI’s Founding Director, Mike Moffatt, held the roles of Director of the PLACE Centre and Senior Director of Policy since 2018. At SPI, Mike co-authored highly influential housing-related reports, including the National Housing Accord and the Blueprint for More and Better Housing, which led to a Financial Post Profile: Can This Man Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis?
Our Business Model
The MMI team is relatively small, comprising only five full-time employees and an annual budget of under $1 million. MMI has no endowment and must pay for salaries and services used both inside and outside the University of Ottawa; therefore, it relies on Supporting Partners. MMI currently receives roughly half of its funding from charitable organizations and not-for-profit entities, with the remainder from government and private-sector partners. Supporting partner organizations provide data, insights, and financial support to MMI.
Editorial Independence and Integrity
Although MMI operates as a not-for-profit initiative housed at the University of Ottawa, it still requires funding to support its activities. MMI has no endowment, receives no subsidy from the University, and must pay overhead fees to cover the use of University resources.
MMI’s credibility hinges on our ability to maintain editorial independence and avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest, a challenging environment for an organization that requires working with supporting partners. To navigate this tension, MMI does not undertake projects that run counter to or outside of our stated goals and objectives. Furthermore, MMI retains exclusive editorial control over all publications and outputs, and our research findings and recommendations are not subject to approval or revision from supporting partners.
MMI recognizes that our need for editorial independence creates potential for tension between our organization and our potential supporting partners, particularly near the end of a project. Prior to starting any project, we work closely with our potential supporting partners to ensure that their goals and objectives align with MMIs and that the final product meets the needs of all parties involved. If a common vision cannot be achieved, MMI will not take on the project.
Political Independence
The University of Ottawa, which houses MMI, is a registered charity. The University of Ottawa, and by extension MMI, as a charity, is prohibited from devoting any resources to the direct or indirect support of or opposition to any political party or candidate or from engaging in any other partisan activities.
Our Office
MMI is located on the University of Ottawa campus, at:
1 Stewart Street, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, ON
K1N 6N5.
Why Subscribe?
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.