Housing Minister Sean Fraser stated contractors are not required to construct affordable apartments to be eligible for a GST break. .Fraser said the government does “not want to be building cheap homes in a bad part of town.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Budget Office estimated the tax break would cost $383 million annually..“I don’t want to be building cheap homes in a bad part of town that are exclusively for low-income families where they don’t have access to the services they need,” Fraser testified at the Commons Human Resources committee. .“I want them to be integrated into communities and have full participation living alongside people from different income backgrounds.”.Bill C-56 An Act to Amend the Excise Tax Act temporarily suspends the GST on new “purpose-built rental housing” constructed by 2036. .The cabinet deleted a 2015 Ministerial Mandate promise to target the tax holiday to “new capital investments in affordable rental housing.”.On Wednesday, Bloc Québécois MP Denis Trudel (Longueuil-St. Hubert, QC) raised concerns about the tax break for expensive apartments..“The GST, we agree it will maybe help us build more homes, but we are not going to build more homes that people can afford,” said Trudel. .“There is an issue of affordability.”.Fraser stated restricting the tax break to affordable housing was the wrong policy..“When I first heard of the notion we should remove the GST to build more apartments, my first reaction was we might want to have some affordability criteria,” said Fraser. .“I spent about five minutes digging into the issue before I realized how wrong that would have been. When we actually address the supply challenge more broadly, it is one of the biggest things we can do to reduce over time the cost of homes.”.“Why is the GST exemption not being applied for co-ops?” asked New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, BC). .“There are other measures that provide a significant degree of tax exemptions for co-ops today,” replied Fraser..Fraser said he expected hundreds of thousands of new apartments to be built but over a long period, at least a decade. Canada is short 3.5 million additional housing starts if affordability is to be restored by 2030, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation..“What do you think the impact is going to look like across the country?” asked Liberal Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, ON). .“By removing the GST, I have seen estimates as high as 200,000 to 300,000 new homes for Canadians over the next ten years,” replied Fraser..“We are dealing with builders who have, by the way, hundreds of thousands of units that are already approved across Canada,” said Fraser. .“We need to get them to a place where the equation they are looking at takes a project off the shelf and puts shovels in the ground.”.“This is going to cause an awful lot of home builders to take that project that has been yellow-lit, green-light it and start building it right away,” said Fraser. .“This is going to have a major impact. It is one of the most important things we could do.”
