Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebot
Rent and housing costs are directly impacted by supply and demand, mortgage rates and inflation, and speculative bubbles from both domestic and foreign sources. Record high immigration negatively impacts supply and demand, and overzealous government spending impacts Bank of Canada decisions, both are which the federal government does control.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10048805/...ing-inflation/
CPC had unveiled their plan. They are not in power at this point and market conditions may change so any talk is only speculative. We may have a hard housing crash next year and have a different problem altogether before election comes up. It's not the first time I had to link it (last time the same line of question came up, it reverted to bashing the CPC plan).
https://www.conservative.ca/building...t-bureaucracy/
Trudeau has been campaigning on affordable housing since 2015
https://liberal.ca/trudeau-promises-...for-canadians/
It's not so much what will Poilievre do as only time will tell if his policies will work once elected (and while certainly bolder and more aggressive will it resolve a housing crisis in itself, very doubtful). It's more to do that Trudeau and Liberals have been at the helm promising affordable housing for 8 years, and this year Trudeau just raises his hands and effectively shrugged "not my responsibility". The acceleration of housing prices and rent has only gone up since the Liberals have been in power, and the incumbent in charge is where the blame shifts. It's an easy target to campaign on.
The optics while rent continues to go up is something that Canadians feel and would care more about, and would likely vote based on that optic more |
But immigration isn't just popping the housing market. At this point is propping up the future of the CPP, Healthcare and the Canadian economy. Have you seen our natural birth rate? It's pathetic. Canadian born people don't want to or can't afford to have kids. If we don't allow mass immigration, we will atrophy and wither, especially living next to the US as more and more youth will then jump ship to avoid the coming storm. You can argue that we got ourselves into a pickle here but there's no way to fix it in present circumstances without acquiring more bodies. Immigration remaining high is a must.
My own personal belief is that we should force immigrants to populate the north. Or at least reside in a northern community for the first 3ish years or something. Exacerbating problems in Toronto and Vancouver is pretty mindless. And if that makes people want to move to canada less, well then we both get what we want out of it. And by north here I don't mean Nunavut or NWT, i just mean in the vast unpopulated space north of roughly calgary all the way across Canada. Edmonton, Saskatoon, Grande Prairie, hell even Fort MacMurray are established enough that substantial growth is possible.
On to the housing strategy the CPC announced.
"The Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act Will:
Require big, unaffordable cities to build more homes and speed up the rate at which they build homes every year to meet our housing targets. Cities must increase the number of homes built by 15% each year and then 15% on top of the previous target every single year (it compounds). If targets are missed, cities will have to catch up in the following years and build even more homes, or a percentage of their federal funding will be withheld, equivalent to the percentage they missed their target by. Municipalities can be added if the region that they are a part of meets these criteria.
Reward big cities that are removing gatekeepers and getting homes built by providing a building bonus for municipalities that exceed a 15% increase in housing completions, proportional to the degree to which they exceed this target.
Withhold transit and infrastructure funding from cities until sufficient high-density housing around transit stations is built and occupied. Cities will not receive money for transit until there are keys-in-doors.
Impose a NIMBY penalty on big city gatekeepers for egregious cases of NIMBYism. We will empower Canadians to file complaints about NIMBYism with the federal infrastructure department. When complaints are legitimate, we will withhold infrastructure and transit dollars until cities allow homes to be built.
Provide a “Super Bonus” to any municipality that has greatly exceeded its housing targets.
Cut the bonuses and salaries, and if needed, fire the gatekeepers at CMHC if they are unable to speed up approval of applications for housing programs to an average of 60 days.
Remove GST on the building of any new homes with rental prices below market value. This will be funded using dollars from the failed Liberal Housing Accelerator fund.
Within a year and a half of this law passing, list 15 percent of the federal government’s 37,000 buildings and all appropriate federal land to be turned into homes people can afford. "
The last point, which I bolded, is IMO the only concrete action on the list that will lead to more affordable housing. Though the last portion is way too vague (how much land??) the 15% of buildings is an intriguing target. I would want some justification though- why does the fed even have those buildings if they're unneeded? Or what purpose are we diverting them from?
The first couple download signficant costs and responsibilities to municipalities. How are they going to achieve that? They don't build homes. The likely result of this is two fold: 1. developers will be approved for further sprawling development in contravention to current policies, costing an increasing amount of taxpayer dollars to provide service and driving up municipal tax rates for everyone. 2. incentives provided to homebuilders to get them building (because losing federal grants is potentially worse), which means less money for programs and services in city OR municipal tax rates increasing.
Dog whistle to "removing gatekeepers". Who is gatekeeping in homebuilding? The homebuilders... but that's clearly not who is meant in this policy. My take is that this is a reference to city planners and urbanists who want to end sprawl. Sprawl = more taxes for everyone. Hard to fight affordability through imposition of more taxes.
Withholding transit and infrastructure funding based on something municipalities can't directly control... That sounds like a recipe for a positive intergovernmental relationship and a functioning society. It's like your boss coming to you before pay day and saying that you are not getting your paycheck until the person wearing the coat you sold starts getting cold and really needs to wear it.
The CHMC stuff is really puzzling. Did someone working at CMHC personally offend smolPP? They're bureaucrats for god sakes, fed ones. They're doing exactly as told, i'm positive. If a new government comes in they will do exactly what that one tells them, no firing needed. Seems to be another dogwhistle like call to his strongman idol.
Removing GST on new home builds is an incentive for the home builders. How will they track and ensure that the rent is being offered below market rate after the incentive is provided? How long of a period must that benefit be maintained? This is a handout to the current gatekeepers.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9910537/m...dable-housing/
The policy is dumb and won't fix anything.