Canada's NDP issued the following press release on September 21, 2023.
OTTAWA – On Thursday, NDP Housing Critic, Jenny Kwan, and NDP Finance Critic, Daniel Blaikie, slammed the Liberals and Conservatives for their fixation on helping rich investors.
On Wednesday afternoon, Pierre Poilievre presented his plan on housing which doubled-down on the Conservatives’ approach that will mostly help rich investors make more money off the housing market and leaves Canadian families behind. On Thursday morning, the Liberals introduced their proposal to remove the GST for rental construction– a measure the NDP has called for—but, the Liberals’ bill fails to ensure that the homes they are incentivizing developers to build will be truly affordable for Canadian families.
“Canadians are struggling. Whether they’re looking for an affordable place to rent, buying their first home, or upsizing to fit their growing families—nothing seems affordable right now,” said Blaikie. "They’re rightfully frustrated and want to see the government help bring down costs. But instead, what Canadians are getting is a Liberal government who constantly disappoints them and delays action to help fix the affordability crisis they helped create. And Pierre Poilievre –who is not who he says he is – was a part of a government that started the mess that Justin Trudeau has made worse.”
Pierre Poilievre was the minister responsible for CMHC and part of the Conservative government for nine years that saw the loss of 800,000 affordable homes. The Conservatives axed the co-op housing program and the Liberals cancelled the national affordable housing program and helped create the current housing crisis for Canadian renters and homeowners.
The NDP believes that, while the private sector has a role to play to build more homes, faster, the any federal government funding should be focused on apartments that people can afford, not apartments that are out-of-reach and allow rich investors to pocket even more profit. What is lacking from both the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ approach to housing is that they are only focused on the private sector when we desperately need the non-profit sector to play a much bigger role if we want to reach the CHMC's target of 3.5 million new homes in a decade.
“Canadians need an all-hands-on-deck approach, but that’s not what they are getting from the Liberals and Conservatives. Both Trudeau and Poilievre are more interested in pleasing rich developers than helping everyday Canadians,” said Kwan. “Canadians can’t trust those who created this housing crisis to fix it. The federal government has the land, the resources and the power to fix this, the only thing that is missing is the political will. It is time for the federal government to invest in non-profit housing like we used to, and to get back into the business of delivering social and co-op housing before the Liberals and Conservatives scrapped everything.’’