Canada housing crisis: Ottawa unveils 20-page ‘ambitious strategy’ for affordable homes

Francesco Pon Giorno. A jovial Liberal front bench outlining their crystallized housing pitch. Our goal is that no Canadian pays more than 30% of their income towards their home. To do that, the Prime Minister putting out a 26 page proposal with a litany of old and plenty of new policies, including tax changes to increase purpose built rentals, a new energy retrofit program for low and medium income homeowners, and new rules to crack down on mortgage fraud. Canadians need homes they can afford. This is one of the most urgent issues that people are facing in all the Liberals proposing 53 different policies ahead of next week’s federal budget. But many of them require provincial buy in Ontario, already rejecting core demands from Ottawa around mandating looser zoning rules. If the provinces don’t want to do it, that just means there’s more money to go directly to the municipalities. But that soon might not be legal in Alberta, with Premier Danielle Smith proposing a new law requiring provincial approval of any federal municipal agreement. Message to Ottawa is that federal politicians, and the Prime Minister in particular, should do his job and stop trying to do my job. One thing missing from Trudeau’s plan? His signature housing pitch from the 2021 election banning blind bidding when purchasing a home. The housing minister saying they’re not implementing it because the market’s cooled off. The circumstances that would justify that kind of a policy have not necessarily been as a parent today as a result of the dynamic that exists in the economy. As it did maybe a few years ago, the Liberals might wish it was a few years ago. When they look at the polls, despite the hyper focus on housing, the Conservatives are now 20 points ahead of the government, the largest gap yet. The Prime Minister and the federal government have been the villains in this story, and I think they are trying to change that by making it clear they’re putting money on the table. But that money won’t lead to immediate results. Housing experts say government policy takes at least two years to impact the housing market, and that’s well after the next election. Mackenzie, Gregg, Global News, Ottawa.