Federal Housing Minister plans plan in 2024 to tackle crisis

(Ottawa) Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser says Canadians should know in 2024 the Liberal government’s detailed plan to tackle the housing crisis.

In an end-of-year interview recently given to The Canadian Press, Mr. Fraser indicated that this plan will bring together the measures already announced by his government and new measures currently being developed.

This plan would therefore build on housing policies already announced by the Liberals, such as eliminating the GST on the construction of rental housing, increasing the amount of low-cost financing available to developers and launching consultations for a catalog of pre-approved house plans, which would speed up project approval.

The Minister of Housing, appointed to this position last July, also traveled the country to sign agreements with municipalities within the framework of the Fund to accelerate housing construction. This program offers federal funding in exchange for changes to municipal regulations that could stimulate construction.

The new measures, meanwhile, will aim to ease pressures on housing construction costs and set out an industrial strategy to boost productivity, the minister said. Ottawa will also provide assistance to those with the greatest housing needs, Fraser added.

The Liberal government’s renewed focus on housing comes as it attempts to regain favor with the electorate around the issue of the cost of living.

The housing crisis has been a major point of contention in Parliament, as Conservatives hold Liberals responsible for skyrocketing rents and mortgage payments.

The Conservatives are proposing that big cities like Vancouver be forced to increase housing construction by 15 per cent each year or face financial penalties, including withholding federal funding. On the other hand, the Conservatives would reward cities that stimulate residential construction with a “construction bonus”.

Conservatives would also require cities that want to obtain federal funding to first approve building permits on available land near public transit stations.

New Democrats are backing the Liberal minority government in key Commons votes in exchange for progress on priorities outlined in a support and confidence agreement reached last year, including the Accelerated Housing Fund.

The New Democratic Party, which advocates for a massive increase in affordable housing, also takes credit for a one-time supplement to the Canada Housing Benefit, granted by Ottawa last fall, and the elimination of GST on new rental construction.

The elephant in the room: demographics

The recent measures announced by the Liberals were inspired by recommendations received from various stakeholders, experts and activists for the right to housing. But a major problem weighing on access to housing has not yet been resolved: the rapid pace of population growth in the country.

A growing number of experts have warned the Liberal government that the current pace of immigration is worsening the housing shortage. Statistics Canada recently reported that the country’s population increased by more than 430,000 in the third quarter, largely due to a rise in temporary residents. This is the fastest rate of population growth recorded since 1957.

The agency also noted that population growth in the first nine months of 2023 has already exceeded the total growth of any other full year, including the record set in 2022.

Earlier this month, Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Toni Gravelle gave a speech on the effect of immigration on the economy – and on inflation in particular. He argues that the rapid pace of population growth adds pressure to a real estate market facing many challenges, including zoning restrictions and a shortage of construction workers.

“This increase in demographic demand, coupled with existing structural supply issues, could explain why rent inflation continues to climb in Canada,” Gravelle told the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce in Ontario. . “This also helps to explain, in part, why house prices have not fallen as much as [la banque centrale] had planned it. »

In his end-of-year interview with Global News, Justin Trudeau acknowledged that the federal government must address this increase in temporary migration. “We must react to this increase in temporary arrivals over the last two years, which total more than two million people,” admitted the Prime Minister.

Foreign students

Although Canada limits the number of people who can obtain permanent residency each year, there is no cap in the foreign student and temporary foreign worker programs.

In October, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new rules to combat fraud in the international student program. He also warned that Ottawa was prepared to crack down on “questionable” post-secondary institutions that recruit foreign students, if the provinces are unable to do so.

More recently, Minister Miller doubled the amount that candidates must have to come study in Canada: they must now prove that they have more than $20,000 to meet their immediate needs, in addition to tuition fees and transportation costs for their arrival.

Minister Fraser, who was Minister of Immigration before being moved to Housing last July, said the foreign student program and the temporary foreign worker program bring economic benefits to Canada, but he acknowledged that these programs had to take into account housing needs.

“We can work with provincial governments, educational institutions and employers to strengthen requirements for supporting people who come temporarily, including through housing,” Fraser said.

He also suggested strengthening the rules allowing companies to access these temporary workers.