NDP MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, MB) said Parliament must investigate the role of small investors in housing, including Airbnb listers, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“When New Democrats are talking about the role of various kinds of financial greed in the economy and the nefarious impact that is having on the budgets of Canadian households, those are some of the things we need to look at and ask some good questions about what kind of society we want to be,” Blaikie told the House of Commons Finance Committee. .“Wrapped up in that is whether we want to treat housing strictly as a commodity, an investment tool, or whether we want to see housing as a social good and a human right.”.Liberal MPs on the Commons Finance Committee expressed interest, noting another committee is acting on an NDP motion to review the financialization of the housing market. .Blaikie called this “an important issue.” .“We should be particularly focused on the question of how investor activity is heating up the real estate market,” he said. .He said this is true at the corporate level, with “cannibalizing affordable housing in order to turn it into condos or higher rent luxury units.” He added this is true with small investors who are acquiring a few properties and renting them on Airbnb. .Blaikie claimed people are not looking to buy houses as homes but as investment properties with no intention they be lived in for significant portions of the year, as it will only be enough to make a reasonable return on them. .The Commons Finance Committee deferred a vote on Blaikie’s proposal pending Parliament’s return from summer recess September 18. .Liberal MP Yvan Baker (Etobicoke-Centre, ON) said the Canadian government is open to studying this issue. .“We are open to looking at how we can do more study of housing along the lines of what Mr. Blaikie proposed,” said Baker. .“It is an interesting way to scope the study in such a way that we are studying an aspect of this problem that really touches Canadians but doesn’t repeat what we have done in the past.”.Airbnb officials said in 2021 there is no way they can meet a Canada Day deadline to start collecting GST. .READ MORE: Airbnb says GST requirement too taxing.An Airbnb lobbyist insisted asking operators to collect the tax was unfair and challenging. .“Deeming platforms as suppliers of something they do not provide in reality and have no contractual obligation to provide is an improper classification from internationally accepted value added tax and GST principles,” said Airbnb lobbyist Nathan Rotman.
