PM offers ‘ambitious’ housing plan
Liberals say that their effort to solve housing crisis will see almost 3.9M homes built by 2031
The federal Liberals have unveiled their plan to solve the housing crisis, building on recent announcements with new tax incentives, more than a billion dollars for homelessness and a countrywide effort to build more housing on public lands.
“Today we are releasing the most comprehensive and ambitious housing plan ever seen in Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in Vaughan, Ont. on Friday.
“It’s a plan to build housing, including for renters, on a scale not seen in generations. We’re talking about almost 3.9 million homes by 2031.”
The parliamentary budget officer released a report Thursday that estimates Canada would need to build 3.1 million homes by 2030 to close the housing gap.
The Liberals’ 28-page plan, which comes days ahead of the federal budget, is the minority government’s latest effort to set the agenda on affordability as it loses significant ground to the Conservatives over cost-of-living issues.
Ottawa is also sending a message to provinces, territories and municipalities that they too will need to step up, dubbing the plan a “call to action.”
“There’s no way that one level of government is going to solve the national housing crisis on their own,” said Housing Minister Sean Fraser in an interview.
“But if we work together ... and create incentives to encourage each other to actually adopt policies that will help us get us to where we need to be, I know that we can accomplish this extraordinarily important task.”
The Liberals’ plan promises to tackle the spectrum of housing affordability challenges Canadians face, from the the out-of-reach dream of homeownership to skyrocketing rental costs to homelessness.
While much of the plan was announced during the government’s recent pre-budget tour or even prior to that, several new measures are laid out in the document, including expanded tax incentives for homebuilding.
The federal government intends to increase the capital cost allowance rate for apartments from four to 10 per cent, which will increase how much builders can write off from their taxes.
It’s also extending the GST exemption on rentals to student residences built by public universities, colleges and school authorities.
The plan also earmarks more money to tackle homelessness.
Tories have largely dismissed the government’s recent housing announcements and argued that pouring more money into “government bureaucracy” won’t solve the housing crisis.
“Justin Trudeau’s vanity announcements and billion-dollar photo ops don’t change the fact that his strategy has doubled housing costs over the last eight years,” said Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison in a statement.