Poilievre puts big cities in crosshairs over increasing their housing stock
Target of 15% growth annually or face cuts
OTTAWA • “Only carrots and sticks will get results,” says Pierre Poilievre who promises to punish or reward big cities in order to increase housing supply if he becomes prime minister.
Speaking in front of a miniature house listed at $2.2 million in the Toronto neighbourhood of North York, Poilievre said he would require “severely unaffordable big cities” like Toronto and Vancouver to increase home building by 15 per cent per year — at the risk of losing some of their federal infrastructure funds. Cities that go over the target would receive a “building bonus” of $10,000 for every extra home, after it is built and occupied.
The Conservative leadership candidate has been hammering his message to remove “gatekeepers” ever since he got into the race, and has especially focused on the rising cost of housing. This time, the gatekeepers he seeks to get out of the way are municipal governments which, according to him, have been asking for more funds without delivering concrete results.
“Big city politicians care about one thing: money. They like to spend other people’s money — particularly when other levels of government collect it,” he said in a press release detailing the announcement.
“A Poilievre Government will make clear to big city politicians that they will not get what they want until the people get what they need: homes built.”
Under his plan, there would be no change to the funding programs for municipalities of fewer than 500,000 people or those whose median house prices are less than five times median income. Small and medium-sized cities would continue to receive an increase in their Community Building Fund, formerly known as the Gas Tax Fund, and GST rebate allocations under the existing formula.
But Poilievre promises to crack down on big cities that do not keep up with his targets.
Municipalities that do not increase housing by 15 per cent annually would be hit with penalties equivalent to the amount by which they have missed the target. For instance, if a city is 10-percent short of its target, 10 per cent of its funding from the Community Building Fund allocation and GST rebate would be withheld.
Poilievre is also promising to require municipalities seeking transit project cash to pre-approve permits for housing and employment on “all available land around stations” and sell 15 per cent of the federal government’s 37,000 buildings so they can be converted into affordable housing.
The Liberal federal budget proposed a Housing Accelerator Fund, as well as promises of low-interest loans or tax credits to renovate homes to make them more energy efficient or multigenerational. It also proposed to ban foreign homebuyers for two years and to ban “blind bidding” in attempts to cool the housing market.
Speaking this week in Kitchener, Ont., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he recognized the need to address the tight housing market.
“It’s going to take a number of years and anyone who’s promising that they have a quick fix for it is not being straight with Canadians,” he added, without mentioning Poilievre.
Toronto Mayor John Tory’s office did not respond directly to Poilievre’s criticism, but rather insisted the city is “working actively” to bring affordable homes on the market.
“There are more construction cranes, the vast majority of them building housing, in Toronto right now than any other city in North America and more than 162,200 homes have entered the development process over the last five years,” said spokesperson Lawvin Hadisi in an email.
Meanwhile, leadership candidate Jean Charest released a plan which he says will give more “freedom” to provinces and territories in determining their model of health care, which would involve the private sector.
Charest announced he would table a National Healthcare Act to give them “significantly more flexibility in delivering care,” while promising that all services would continue to fall under single payer provincial public insurance programs and abide by principles of universality and portability.
“It’s time to untie the hands of the provinces and let them develop their own unique systems based on local needs and without the federal government interfering in their jurisdiction,” he said.
Charest said he would maintain the three-per-cent annual increase in the federal health transfer to provinces while negotiating an agreement that would increase it. He did not provide a clear number.
As prime minister, he would incentivize entrepreneurs and private providers to foster innovation, improve service and reduce wait times.
But Charest’s record in health care as Quebec premier was criticized by Poilievre, who pointed to the long emergency wait times under his tenure to say it was a “disaster” and that he had gotten “terrible results” for Quebec patients. “Why believe him now?” he asked.
When he took power, Charest inherited a health system that had been weakened by deficit-slashing efforts in Ottawa and Quebec.