The housing crisis is in the top three of issues identified by Canadians as their main concerns in the federal election.
The crisis began taking over the headlines not long after the Liberals took over the Canadian government in 2015 and announced an aggressive and not-well-thought-out immigration plan.
Five months after forming the government, the Liberals announced in March 2016 its immigration target for the year was 300,000 permanent residents, without any announcement of where these newcomers would live.
In 2022, the Liberals changed their target to 431,645 new permanent residents that year, rising to 447,055 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024, again making no reference to accommodations.
In late 2023, the Liberals again revised the numbers to 485,000 in 2024, 500,000 for 2025, and 500,000 for 2026. Mention of how to house them? Nope, not a peep.
By this time, Canadians had endured the heavy, draconian hand of the Liberals during COVID-19 and a full-fledged housing buying spree had been unleashed when the Bank of Canada lowered its overnight rate to .25%, lowering mortgage rates to levels Canadians couldn’t pass up.
In October 2024, the Liberals announced they were reducing the annual immigration targets down from 500,000 to just below 400,000 through to 2027, citing the pressure on housing.
Too little, too late — Canada was, and still is, in the grips of the most severe housing crisis ever and the Liberals opened Canadian taxpayers’ wallets to try and solve the problem to the tune, so far, of more than $116 billion, with the Liberal candidate for prime minister, Mark Carney, promising a government under his control would spend billions more.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started rolling out the dough in 2017, pledging to spend $2.5 billion to provide low-cost loans to support new rental construction, followed six months later by a $40 billion spend to create a National Housing Strategy, that would "protect the affordability of the current affordable housing stock in Canada, build four times as many units as the past decade and reduce chronic homelessness by 50%,” said Trudeau at the time.
On the heels of that spend came a $4 billion program to “provide an estimated average of $2,500 per year to households, assisting at least 300,000 families with mortgage or rental arrears.
In rapid fire, starting in May 2018, the Liberal government launched the $13.2 billion National Housing Co-Investment Fund; $8.65 billion in low interest loans to ensure existing rental housing is well maintained and modernized for better energy efficiency and accessibility standards.
Then, the $200 million federal lands initiative to support the transfer of surplus federal properties; $10 billion for Rental Construction Financing; $1 billion for the Rapid Housing Initiative; $4 billion for the Housing Accelerator Fund that dictated to municipalities what types of homes they must build to get a piece of the action, and; the $500 million Co-operative Housing Development Program, designed to expand co-op housing.
As part of Budget 2022, the Liberals topped off the Canada Housing Benefit with $475 million and announced a multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit that would "provide up to $7,500 in support for constructing a secondary suite for a senior or an adult with a disability."
Add in $574.4 million for the Interim Housing Assistance Program and an additional $99 million for the Canada Housing Benefit.
Sadly, there's more.
In April 2024, in its budget, the Liberal government added $400 million to the Housing Accelerator Fund and created the $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, plus an additional $1.167 billion in various housing projects.
In his last big housing expenditure before being expelled from the prime minister’s office, Trudeau created the $30 billion Canada Public Transit Fund, with funding to municipalities tied to transit-oriented housing development.
The day Trudeau left office, the housing crisis was still a stark reality in Canada despite the massive amount of money thrown at it by the Liberals.
Now, one person who wants that office, Mark Carney, has announced he would throw more good money after the bad in his housing plan, which is tantamount to doing the same thing over and over again.
Carney says he will establish Build Canada Homes (BCH), a government agency that would act as a developer, overseeing the construction of affordable housing and providing “tens of billions in financing for affordable housing.” Of course, that's 'tens of billions in taxpayers' money.'
Those outside of Carney’s circle can see BCH is just more bureaucracy. Canadians do not need nor want to be saddled with another boondoggle bureaucracy.
It's time for a change.
