Tie cash for cities to homes built
Canadians are living through a housing hell. Since Justin Trudeau became prime minister, rent and mortgage costs have doubled. Rents have reached a record-high average of $2,196 a month. It now takes 25 years for the average Toronto family to save up for a down payment. Before Trudeau, you could pay off an entire mortgage in that time. Over the past year, the cost to rent an apartment with a roommate jumped by 18.5 per cent, making it more expensive than living alone when Trudeau was first elected.
But it gets even worse. Trudeau and his housing minister, Sean Fraser, have been touring the country, handing out your money to the local gatekeepers who drive up home prices by blocking homes from being built.
In Vancouver, $1.3 million is added to the cost of a home by government gatekeepers, according to C.D. Howe. That means the No. 1 cost of a new home in Vancouver is not land, labour or lumber. It’s bureaucracy and taxes. What did Justin Trudeau do? He handed the very same gatekeepers a cheque to say, “job well done.”
In Winnipeg, the NIMBY municipal government deliberately delayed, according to a court ruling against the city, the approval process for a massive new housing project that would have meant more homes for Canadians. When one planner flat out refused to help with this unethical plot, they were replaced by a gatekeeper who would. Justin Trudeau and Sean Fraser rewarded this behaviour by cutting the local gatekeepers another cheque for $122 million for doing a “good job” of building more homes.
Federal money cannot be funding gatekeepers who make life unaffordable for Canadians.
One of the many federal infrastructure programs Justin Trudeau is responsible for is the Canada Community Building Fund. Last year alone, the CCBF, through agreements between each province and the federal government, sent $2.4 billion to provinces for infrastructure projects. These agreements expire on March 31, 2024 for all provinces and territories, and on March 1 for Quebec.
We know that Justin Trudeau isn’t afraid of imposing his agenda on provinces and cities. Earlier this week, radical Liberal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced that the federal government was going to stop funding roads.
They won’t be happy until you live in a million-dollar mud hut and spend all your days stuck in traffic on pothole-ridden roads, or even better, don’t even drive or own a home at all.
This government has done nothing to fire gatekeepers and get homes built.
Canadians deserve better than this — they deserve a government that has a Common Sense Plan to cut the bureaucracy and get homes built. Conservatives have that plan: a mathematical formula that will reward cities who build homes and punish the cities who don’t.
If they beat the target, they should get a bonus. If they miss the target, they should get a penalty. Small municipalities should be exempt from the penalties but eligible for the bonuses.
The CCBF infrastructure deals are up for renewal next month, so we must act now. Justin Trudeau needs to adopt my Common Sense Plan immediately.
But if he doesn’t, a Common Sense Conservative government will get homes built, not just empty promises, by making home building the primary goal of infrastructure funding.
Shovels in the ground, keys in doors, and homes that you can afford. It’s just common sense.
FEDERAL MONEY CANNOT BE FUNDING GATEKEEPERS WHO MAKE LIFE UNAFFORDABLE FOR CANADIANS.