Alberta premier says she's prepared to take Ottawa to court over housing deals

Federal officials and Alber‐ ta Premier Danielle Smith clashed again on Friday over steps Ottawa is taking to boost housing construc‐ tion across the country, as Smith raised the spectre of a legal battle.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser revealed Friday a re‐ vamped national housing strategy that he said will help create almost 3.9 million homes by 2031.

Smith already has pushed back against a number of pri‐ or federal announcements that promised funding for housing and related infra‐ structure - with or without the cooperation of provincial governments.

This week, Smith intro‐ duced what she called a "stay out of my backyard bill" in the Edmonton legislature. The legislation would require provincial oversight of future housing deals between the federal government and mu‐ nicipalities in the province (and in other areas as well).

In an interview airing Sat‐ urday on CBC Radio's The House, Smith said she simply wants to see her province treated in the same way as Quebec, which signed a housing deal with the federal government in October of last year. The deal with the province, rather than individ‐ ual municipalities, was re‐ quired by provincial law.

She said she'd be willing to challenge the federal gov‐ ernment in court if neces‐ sary.

"We're prepared to take them to court. They cannot be using their federal spend‐ ing power in asymmetric fed‐ eralism," Smith told host Catherine Cullen, accusing the federal government of "playing politics" with tax dol‐ lars.

"We will not stand by while they continue to treat Alberta municipalities unfair‐ ly."

Smith also touted her own province's commitment to housing construction - a promised investment of $840 million over three years.

In a separate interview airing Saturday on The House, federal Housing Min‐ ister Sean Fraser said Smith's bill would slow down agree‐ ments that would promote home building. He also said he's confident the two gov‐ ernments can work together.

He said Alberta has re‐ ceived close to its propor‐ tional share of funding - just 0.03 per cent off, he said under the government's housing accelerator fund program.

"If they wish to slow down the process because they want to have some agency over this, I would suggest they do what Quebec did match us in funding and im‐ plement reforms on a province-wide basis that will allow us to achieve our goals," Fraser said.

Smith said Friday that while Edmonton and Calgary have enjoyed some success under the fund, she has to think of smaller municipali‐ ties as well.

'Get out of the way': Trudeau

Canada is facing a persis‐ tent housing crisis. The Cana‐ da Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimated last year that Canada will need to build 3.5 million additional homes - above projected construction - to restore af‐ fordability to the housing market.

Asked Friday about Smith's stance, Prime Minis‐ ter Justin Trudeau pointed out that he was criticized for saying the federal govern‐ ment had limited influence over the housing file across the country.

"We heard from a caval‐ cade of provinces saying, 'See, the federal government needs to step up more ... the federal government needs to step up and fix this housing crisis,'" he said.

WATCH | PM's message to provinces on housing deals

"So we are. Provinces should be careful what they wish for. They want the fed‐ eral government to fix this housing crisis? We are, we will."

Trudeau said he'd rather see provinces step up their own ambitions and commit to cooperating with Ottawa. He said Canadians don't care about jurisdictional issues they just want the problem solved.

"That's why we're there to work hand in hand, in full re‐ spect, with those provinces who want to solve the prob‐ lem," he said. "And [to] ask those provinces who don't want to solve the problem to just get out of the way while we solve that problem that Canadians are facing."

Smith said she's simply looking for equal treatment.

"I wish [Trudeau] would treat us exactly like Quebec, and I don't think that that would be something that I would be careful of," she said. "I think that that is something I would expect."

Smith was also asked Friday about concerns she expressed about language in the housing plan referring to "climate friendly housing."

"It should be about af‐ fordable housing, so that those who have entry-level housing have the ability to enter into that market at an affordable level," she said. "That's what we're worried about, [that] all of the addi‐ tional measures that are going to elevate and escalate the cost of housing and miss the point. The point is attain‐ able housing."

Smith said she doesn't trust the federal government to prioritize affordable hous‐ ing over net-zero emissions goals.

Fraser said the language on climate friendly housing doesn't mean a requirement to meet a net-zero standard.

"This is ironic because when you actually make your home more efficient, you pay less in your power bill every month," he said.