Conservatives, NDP target housing costs
The Conservatives and NDP are both pledging to take on what they say is a housing crisis in Canada, as affordability shapes up to be a key issue in the federal election.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh blamed the government of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for rising housing costs at a stop in Burnaby, B.C., Wednesday.
“The reality is, over the past six years, things have just gotten so much worse. People cannot find a home that’s in their budget,” he said. “One of the big reasons why this is happening is because Justin Trudeau has let this happen.”
The NDP said in a press release the price for a typical home across Canada has gone from $433,800 when Trudeau was elected in 2015 to $734,500 in August 2021. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average sale price in June was just over $679,000, up 25.9 per cent from a year earlier. High prices in the Toronto and Vancouver areas played a significant role in driving that number up, the association said.
Singh said his party would create 500,000 homes “that are within people’s budget.” He said that means people won’t have to leave cities where their career or family is located just to be able to afford a home, or to put off growing a family because they don’t have adequate housing.
The Conservative party pointed to a new Statistics Canada report that indicates Canada’s inflation rate is at 3.7 per cent — a nearly two-decade high — saying “Canadians are experiencing a cost of living crisis.” The party said its proposals, including a plan to “stabilize the housing market,” would address affordability.
Both parties are positioning themselves as the right alternative to the Liberals’ track record, from opposing perspectives. New Democrats say they’re the only party willing to step up and tax the “ultrarich” to pay for a suite of new social programs and improve affordability, while the Conservatives say they’re the only party that won’t bring in more debt or “fiscal mismanagement.”
A new poll from Maru Public Opinion released Wednesday found affordability and cost of living was the top ballot box issue among Canadians. It was cited as one of the top two concerns by 28 per cent of respondents in an online poll.
In its platform, the NDP says the half a million units of affordable housing would be built over 10 years, and include social housing, “community and non-market housing, as well as rental assistance for co-ops.” The party would also put in place a 20-per-cent foreign buyers’ tax for residential property, waive federal taxes on the construction of affordable rental units, and “reintroduce 30-year terms to CMHC insured mortgages on entrylevel homes for first-time home buyers.”
The Conservative plan pledges to release at least 15 per cent of the federal government’s real estate portfolio for housing, create an “incentive for corporations and private landowners to donate property to Land Trusts for the development of affordable housing,” and ban foreign investors from buying homes for two years. It would also make changes to the mortgage stress test and “encourage a new market in seven- to 10-year mortgages to provide stability both for first-time home buyers and lenders.”
Earlier this month, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report on federal program spending on affordability. It concluded that three factors “limited” the impact of the government’s 2017 National Housing Strategy, which the Liberal government says will spend $72 billion over 10 years.
Unless funding is increased, the number of households in housing need will increase to approximately 1.8 million by 2025-26, the document said. The affordability gap, or the difference between the cost of housing and affordability, will reach $9.3 billion by that time, according to the report.
The PBO found that over the “first three years of Canada’s National Housing Strategy, the (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) spent less than half the funding allocated for two key initiatives, the National Housing Co-investment Fund and Rental Construction Financing Initiative.”
A Liberal Party spokesperson said in an email housing affordability is “a key priority for our Liberal government. That is why, on January 1, 2022, a Liberal government will introduce Canada’s first national tax on vacant property owned by non-resident, non-canadians.”
That tax would implement an annual “one-per-cent tax on the value of non-resident, non Canadian owned residential real estate that is considered to be vacant or underused,” the 2021 budget outlined.
The spokesperson said the Liberals’ National Housing Strategy “will support the construction of up to 125,000 affordable homes and increase Canada’s housing supply.”