Alberta Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon and Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said they have deep concerns about the Canadian government’s latest housing proposal. This is because the Canadian government has not provided equitable funding to Alberta for housing in the past and is bypassing provincial jurisdiction by not consulting or notifying provinces about the proposal. “This is another example of the federal government’s long history of ignoring the province’s jurisdiction and playing politics with important issues like housing,” said Nixon and McIver in a Wednesday statement. Nixon and McIver said the government’s proposal will make it harder and more expensive to build homes and will limit the kinds that can be built. They added it is a continuation of the Canadian government’s green agenda by attempting to ban natural gas by 2030 and nationalize housing. At a time when construction of homes and purpose-built rentals is at an all-time high, they said imposing roadblocks on building “will shut people out of the rental and housing market and discourage new construction, making the problem worse.”The Canadian government has been unclear about how it plans to distribute this funding. No information has been provided about whether or not funding will be provided per capita to ensure it is not used for political gain. Statistics from advocacy group Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) Alberta how the provincial government’s plan to focus on increasing supply in the market is working. BILD Alberta said the Calgary region saw 1,674 new home starts in February, which is 57% higher than the 20-year average for February and the second-most starts in a February in its history.Edmonton saw 1,642 new home starts in February, making it the second-busiest February on record. Together with partners, the Alberta government is spending $9 billion to provide affordable housing for 25,000 more families by 2031.Nixon and McIver concluded by saying Alberta is “leading the country by having the fewest regulations and fastest permit approval times to enable housing construction and increase the supply of homes.”“That is why we reject the idea that the provinces and territories should not be involved in this decision, as we are best positioned to understand the local housing needs and concerns of our communities,” they said.“If the federal government wants to actually remove red tape and make housing more affordable as they claim, they will instead listen to our calls to remove the carbon tax so that building costs are lowered and shovels can get in the ground faster.”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday the Canadian government will spend $400 million through Budget 2024 on the Housing Accelerator Fund to speed up construction of more homes to address the housing crisis. READ MORE: WATCH: Trudeau admits mass immigration fuelling housing crisis“As I said earlier and as Mayor [Mike] Savage has pointed out many times before, if we want to build more homes faster, we also need to be upgrading critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater infrastructure,” said Trudeau. “To do exactly that, we’ll launch the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund with a billion dollars available to allocate over the short term to municipalities to support needs that will directly create more housing and $5 billion for agreements with provinces and territories to support investments in long-term priorities paired with key provincial and territorial actions to boost housing supply.”
Alberta Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon and Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said they have deep concerns about the Canadian government’s latest housing proposal. This is because the Canadian government has not provided equitable funding to Alberta for housing in the past and is bypassing provincial jurisdiction by not consulting or notifying provinces about the proposal. “This is another example of the federal government’s long history of ignoring the province’s jurisdiction and playing politics with important issues like housing,” said Nixon and McIver in a Wednesday statement. Nixon and McIver said the government’s proposal will make it harder and more expensive to build homes and will limit the kinds that can be built. They added it is a continuation of the Canadian government’s green agenda by attempting to ban natural gas by 2030 and nationalize housing. At a time when construction of homes and purpose-built rentals is at an all-time high, they said imposing roadblocks on building “will shut people out of the rental and housing market and discourage new construction, making the problem worse.”The Canadian government has been unclear about how it plans to distribute this funding. No information has been provided about whether or not funding will be provided per capita to ensure it is not used for political gain. Statistics from advocacy group Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) Alberta how the provincial government’s plan to focus on increasing supply in the market is working. BILD Alberta said the Calgary region saw 1,674 new home starts in February, which is 57% higher than the 20-year average for February and the second-most starts in a February in its history.Edmonton saw 1,642 new home starts in February, making it the second-busiest February on record. Together with partners, the Alberta government is spending $9 billion to provide affordable housing for 25,000 more families by 2031.Nixon and McIver concluded by saying Alberta is “leading the country by having the fewest regulations and fastest permit approval times to enable housing construction and increase the supply of homes.”“That is why we reject the idea that the provinces and territories should not be involved in this decision, as we are best positioned to understand the local housing needs and concerns of our communities,” they said.“If the federal government wants to actually remove red tape and make housing more affordable as they claim, they will instead listen to our calls to remove the carbon tax so that building costs are lowered and shovels can get in the ground faster.”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday the Canadian government will spend $400 million through Budget 2024 on the Housing Accelerator Fund to speed up construction of more homes to address the housing crisis. READ MORE: WATCH: Trudeau admits mass immigration fuelling housing crisis“As I said earlier and as Mayor [Mike] Savage has pointed out many times before, if we want to build more homes faster, we also need to be upgrading critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater infrastructure,” said Trudeau. “To do exactly that, we’ll launch the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund with a billion dollars available to allocate over the short term to municipalities to support needs that will directly create more housing and $5 billion for agreements with provinces and territories to support investments in long-term priorities paired with key provincial and territorial actions to boost housing supply.”
