AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Promises made during the election campaign by the four main parties

CONSERVATIVES

• Collect data on foreign home buyers and, depending on what the data reveals, work with provinces to curb foreign speculation in the real estate market.

• Expand the Home Buyers’ Plan from $25,000 to $35,000 so first-time home buyers can withdraw savings tax-free to help with down payments.

• Establish a new Home Renovation Tax Credit for projects between $1,000 and $5,000 so homes can be upgraded.

• Aims to add more than 700,000 new homeowners in Canada by 2020.

GREENS

• Develop a National

Housing Strategy, to include plans for seniors, First Nations, social housing, and affordable market housing; • Create an outreach

program that houses chronically homeless people and provides immediate support;

• Extend subsidies for existing co-ops, and funds to build new ones.

• Ensure a percentage of all newly built multi-family buildings are reserved for affordable housing.

LIBERALS

• Spend billions constructing new affordable housing and seniors’ facilities, as part of the three-year plan to run deficits.

• Provide $125 million per year in tax incentives to increase and renovate rental housing.

• Inventory federal

lands and buildings to see what could be sold at low cost for affordable housing in cities with desperate need.

• Review escalating home prices in highpriced markets like Vancouver and Toronto to try to keep ownership within reach.

NEW DEMOCRATS

• Restore long-term investment in social housing, including co-ops.

• Provide incentives to build 10,000 affordable and market rental units.

• Work with First

Nations, Métis and Inuit communities to improve housing in remote areas.

• Pass the Affordable Housing Act to recognize housing as a right.