THOMAS: Liberals bribe City of Calgary, dictating type of homes to build

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek is a tad upset with the major federal party leaders making election promises to fix Canada’s housing crisis, without first consulting her. 

Could it be the mayor fears being dictated to? 

Both the Conservative Party and Liberal Party have announced plans each thinks will solve the housing crisis.  

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre said his government would eliminate the GST on all purchases of new homes sold for less than $1.3 million, followed by the Liberal candidate for prime minister, Mark Carney copying the Conservatives’ plan, changing it just slightly to make it sound like it was his idea, getting rid of the GST on new homes bought by first time buyers only, for less than $1 million. 

Currently, the GST takes a vacation on all new homes priced under $450,000. 

Carney added he would have 500,000 new homes built per year, using modular building techniques, begging the question ‘does that have anything to do with European-based modular construction company, Modulaire Group, which Brookfield Business Partners bought in 2021 when Carney was with Brookfield?'

Regardless, building 500,000 new homes a year in Canada is unrealistic. The average homes built per year since 1977 is 192,000.  

Both plans would have the federal government act as a developer (what could possibly go wrong?) and would dictate municipalities to reduce development charges, with the savings passed along to new home buyers. 

Currently, land developers and builders pay for all infrastructure in new communities, as well as the infrastructure required to hook up the new stuff to the city’s systems, as per agreements with the city. 

On April 10, Mayor Gondek said those plans alone will not fix problems, and the City of Calgary should have been consulted. 

“They need to be speaking with us to understand what our needs are, and housing alone is not going to solve a problem,” said the mayor, adding the city needs updated infrastructure. 

“If you don’t have the ability to pay for the roads, the water and wastewater pipes, that housing alone is not going to fix the situation,” she said. 

“We are a really good resource for the federal government. They just need to come and talk to us,” she said. 

Let’s be clear, this is as much about politics and money as it is about solving a housing crisis and in fact, the federal Liberal government has already been a ‘really good resource’ for the City of Calgary and is dictating the type of housing it wants built. 

In November 2023, the city figuratively hopped into bed with the feds, accepting what was essentially a bribe of $228.5 million over three years from the Liberals’ Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF,) ostensibly to get more homes built in the city.  

The HAF funding was targeted “to support seven initiatives that include accelerating housing downtown, investing in transit-oriented development, streamlining housing approvals, incentivizing secondary suites, funding infrastructure, and supporting non-market housing development,” reads a statement from the city. 

There are a number of caveats in the agreement, not the least of which was the elimination of all zoning for only single-family homes in the city, leading to the infamous blanket up-zoning bylaw and a wave of approvals of new multi-family homes in established communities in all areas of the city since. 

The agreement no doubt influenced certain members of city council to recently approve a massive and poorly thought-out development on the site of the former Viscount Bennett High School, where between 1,200 and 1,500 multi-family homes are scheduled to be built. 

Why so many multi-family homes?  

The HAF agreement pays the city bonus bribes (it calls it 'top up funding') for approving increasingly rising levels of new multi-family homes permits only.  

“Top up funding is designed to 'incent' certain types of housing supply. Top up funding will depend on the type of housing and the associated projected increase in the number of permitted units. There is no top up funding available for single detached homes (italics mine,)” reads the agreement. “The value ascribed to each category will be multiplied by the associated projected increase in the number of permitted units.” 

In March, the city sent out a giddy-as-hell press release, saying it had received an additional $22.8 million in bonus bribe money, almost breaking an arm slapping itself on the back for issuing the permits. Obviously, but apparently oblivious to the city, the permits would have been issued anyway, with close to 100,000 people moving to the city in the last year and a half and buying new homes.  

If anything, credit should go to land developers and new home builders for applying for those permits in a timely fashion so our newcomers (welcome, by the way!) have homes to live in. 

If the mayor is concerned the federal government is dictating how Calgary grows and where homes should be built and what type of homes should be built, that horse has left the barn, if it’s still OK to build barns.