The Liberal Party of Canada leadership race is coming to a close. The successful candidate will at some point run in a federal election that will significantly shape Canada’s social, economic and political future. Whoever becomes the new leader must present and deliver on an inspiring vision that is centred on ensuring Canada is a place where all residents have the resources and opportunities they need to be healthier and more resilient.
Wellesley Institute provided recommendations to candidates on issues we hope to see them address – ensuring everyone has the resources they need to thrive, ending homelessness and addressing housing affordability, and making sure everyone can afford healthy food.
Yesterday, we analyzed thriving and food security. Below, we analyze the candidates’ proposals around housing.
Housing analysis
Homelessness is devastating to health, and health equity. People experiencing homelessness get sick, stay sick and die young. Street-involved men in Toronto die 24 years younger than the general population and street-involved women in Toronto die a staggering 42 years younger.
We commend Karina Gould for committing to work with other levels of government through Federal-Provincial-Territorial Accords to end homelessness. We hope she will continue to provide more details about her commitment, including around timelines, public targets and how the federal government would ensure groups are lifted out of homelessness equitably. Mark Carney commits to working with provinces to “tackle homelessness” but no details are provided. It is very disappointing that other leaders appear not to mention homelessness at all.
Supportive housing is an evidence-based policy that is crucial to end our homelessness crisis. Only Karina Gould appeared to reference this needed solution by referring to integrating mental health and addictions supports into her homelessness approach (although supportive housing is broader than mental health and addictions). No other candidates mentioned this important need.
Candidates seem mostly focused on increasing housing supply, which addresses housing attainability. Leaders must recognize that we face three housing crisis – attainability, affordability and homelessness. Supply may improve attainability, but leaders are not even claiming it will “trickle down” to affordability, let alone to the more serious issue of homelessness. If that is part of their vision, they need to ensure those efforts do not make affordability and homelessness efforts even harder. They must also tell the public why they market housing will trickle down, how many units will reach those in greater and greatest need, and how quickly they believe that will happen.
On affordability, Chrystia Freeland commits to “more” cooperative and affordable housing, and Karina Gould mentions “more” cooperative housing. A clearer proposal comes from Mark Carney, who would “double” non-profit community housing, including co-op housing. All three of those candidates have proposals that aim to improve the ease of building affordable housing which are worthy of consideration.
It is commendable that Mark Carney mentions working in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities on housing need.
There are differences in the stories the candidates are telling about addressing housing. Whoever is successful in this leadership campaign, Canada will still need a plan that sets public targets for ending homelessness and addressing affordability – quickly.
Below are detailed summaries on each candidate’s platforms related to housing, (in alphabetical order by first name).
Chrystia Freeland
On supply:
- Cut municipal development charges to lower the cost of building homes.
- Finance modular homebuilders to start up and scale up factories across the country.
On affordability:
- Eliminate the GST on new homes for first-time buyers, saving them “up to $75,000,” and remove the federal tax on new homes worth up to $1.5 million for first-time buyers.
- Bring back rent-to-own programs and give renters credit for on-time rent payments to help renters become homeowners.
- Ban AI algorithms that use personal information to artificially raise rents.
- Build more co-ops and affordable housing.
Frank Baylis
On supply:
- Offer incentives to local governments that achieve housing development targets with the housing accelerator funds, reclaiming them where they fail to meet development requirements.
- Modify the National Building Code to streamline approvals of modular homes and raise height restrictions on wood-frame multi-story structures using mass timber technology.
On affordability:
- Commit to the announced $1.5 billion in funding for the Co-op Housing Development Program as part of the Affordable Housing Fund to build housing and to renovate and repair existing affordable and community housing.
- Expand the Home Accessibility Tax Credit to cover more expenses and make it fully refundable so lower-income seniors can benefit.
Karina Gould
On homelessness:
- End homelessness through Federal-Provincial-Territorial Accords that integrate housing with mental health and addiction support.
On supply:
- Support the building of modular homes quickly that are climate resilient, faster, and at a lower cost.
- Implement targeted incentives to attract, train and rapidly expand a nationwide workforce with the necessary skills and trades to meet Canada’s urgent housing needs.
- Partner with municipalities to streamline zoning and build more homes faster with a new Housing Accelerator Round and by cracking down on predatory speculation.
On affordability:
- Build more cooperative housing.
- Boost the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive through increasing the percentage offered for a down payment to 50 per cent, reducing the paperwork required to qualify, and offering a tax credit of $2,000 on the provincial land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers
Mark Carney
On supply:
- Double the pace of new housing construction over 10 years (“4 million over the next several years”), including by “unlocking private risk capital for new home construction,” supporting modular housing to speed up development, expanding training and apprenticeship programs for skilled trades, and working with provinces and municipalities to lower development fees.
On affordability:
- Eliminate the GST for first-time homebuyers on homes under $1 million.
- Address the housing needs – and advance the self-determination – of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples by working in partnership to address housing availability, safety and affordability.
- Expand access to funding and low-interest loans delivered by CMHC for small and non-profit builders to develop and protect affordable housing.
- Double non-profit community housing, including co-op housing, to deliver permanently affordable homes.