Wellesley Institute’s 2025 Federal Election series laid out our recommendations for what federal parties can do to advance health equity in three key areas: thriving – policies that will help ensure everyone has what they need to live a healthy life, live in healthy housing and afford healthy food.
We have already examined where parties stand on ensuring everyone in Canada has what they need to thrive and on ensuring everyone in Canada can access affordable, healthy food. Below, we examine the parties’ commitments on ensuring everyone in Canada can afford a healthy home. Election day is Monday, April 28.
Our analysis
We currently face three distinct housing crises, all of which require urgent government attention and action. Even as parties move to address housing affordability and attainability, the most urgent need in housing is to end homelessness.
Wellesley Institute continues to call for federal leaders to lead the provinces, territories and municipalities on the creation of a clear, public, 10-year plan to end homelessness. That plan must include specific strategies for populations most in need, such as 2SLGBTQ+, and racialized groups, and those in need of support for mental health and addictions. It must also fully fund an Indigenous-led strategy to end Indigenous homelessness.
None of the three political parties’ platforms we reviewed have risen to that challenge. It should be an urgent priority for Canada’s next government.
On homelessness and the supportive housing that we must build and fund to end it, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) only mentions a “return” to a “housing first” approach. We hope this represents a commitment to the Housing First model. However, their platform did not mention the supports that would be necessary to enable those in need of help to stay stably housed.
The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) proposes a $6-billion investment into building deeply affordable and supportive housing as well as shelters.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) would create a new Housing Insecurity Prevention Benefit to help 50,000 people in critical need find homes, which would lift people out of homelessness or prevent it. They would also create a new $2-billion-per-year Communities First Fund. That fund would in part require provinces accessing it to have strategies to end encampments and homelessness.
There are far too many in Canada currently struggling with affordability. As with ending homelessness, achieving affordable housing for all cannot be solved through market solutions alone. It requires meaningful investments that will meet the needs of everyone who cannot afford an adequate, healthy home.
We did not identify any investments from the CPC, but the New Democrats and Liberals propose additional investments they argue would help ensure affordability for those who need it, and attainability of the desired home for those who want it.
The LPC would create “Build Canada Homes” to develop affordable housing, including by providing over $25 billion for prefabricated homes and $10 billion in low-cost financing to affordable home builders.
The NDP would add $2 billion to a rental protection fund to help non-profits buy housing stock and would have the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) offer lower-interest, fixed-term loans to those needing help with financing a new home.
There are also many in Canada who, while they may not be in an affordability crisis, are struggling with attainability. They cannot currently afford to live in the healthy, affordable, adequate home they want. All three parties propose to reduce government revenues through tax changes in order to encourage more market-based housing, expecting that lowering costs for developers will lead to additional development.
The CPC would eliminate the GST on all homes up to $1.3 million and incentivize municipalities to reduce their development charges. Municipalities reducing their development charges by $100,000 per unit would be eligible for federal funding to make up half the reduction in revenue reduction.
The LPC would eliminate GST only for first-time home buyers of up to $1-million homes, and lower the GST rate for homes of up to $1.5 million. They propose to reduce municipal development charges for multi-unit residential housing by 50 per cent for five years by working with provinces and territories to ensure municipalities receive additional funding to make up for the revenue lost. They also propose to reintroduce the Multi-Unit Rental Building tax incentive.
The NDP also addresses development charges by proposing to require provinces accessing their new Communities First Fund to freeze and reduce development charges.
Finally, there are regulatory changes each party proposes. All parties would change CMHC or other funding rules to make it easier and faster for developers to build homes. They would all encourage density to varying degrees, and with varying approaches. The CPC would cut funding from municipalities who do not meet yearly targets. The LPC hopes to show federal leadership on streamlining building approvals. And, the NDP would only allow municipalities who reform zoning to allow multi-residential homes everywhere to access a modified $8-billion Housing Accelerator Fund. The NDP also hopes to entice provinces to enact stronger rent control and make other changes to protect renters and encourage building by only allowing provinces that comply to have access to their proposed $2-billion Communities First Fund.
In summary, the parties’ proposals on homelessness are inadequate, though the LPC and NDP propose funding that would help. Those two parties have additional funding proposals to deliver more affordable housing, though their platforms do not propose to provide enough funding. All three parties propose significant revenue reductions (whether federal, provincial or municipal) to encourage more market housing to address attainability, with the CPC proposing to cut federal funding for municipalities in which the market does not build. Finally, the NDP hopes to build on the Housing Accelerator Fund approach of the current government to entice provinces and municipalities to act in many areas, including some changes aimed at protecting renters.
Our next government will seek to improve affordability and attainability of housing. We hope it will be enough. We hope Canada’s next government will also recognize it must lead, and invest, to end homelessness in partnership with other levels of government, Indigenous leaders, and community. Everyone in Canada deserves to have an affordable, healthy, adequate home.
More detail on each of the parties’ platforms is presented below, alphabetically by party name.
Conservative Party of Canada
On homelessness, the CPC platform proposes to:
- Return to a “Housing First” approach to eliminating homelessness so that individuals experiencing homelessness can have a stable place to live
The CPC platform did not include any investments in housing.
On revenue reductions designed to encourage more home building, they propose to:
- Eliminate GST on all homes up to $1.3 million
- Incentivize municipalities to reduce development charges by funding up to half of reductions of up to $100,000 per unit
On regulatory changes, they propose to:
- Cut federal funding for municipalities who do not meet yearly homebuilding targets
- Establish a 60-day standard at the CMHC for approving or rejecting affordable housing financing applications, remove program eligibility requirements to accessing affordable housing funding, and increase density around “federally funded transit stations”
- Remove some CMHC program eligibility requirements to make it easier for homebuilders to access the benefits of affordable housing funding
Liberal Party of Canada
On homelessness, the LPC platform proposes to:
- Invest $6 billion into Build Canada Homes (building on the Rapid Housing Initiative), which would build deeply affordable housing, supportive housing and shelters
On other investments, they propose to:
- Create Build Canada Homes to develop affordable housing, including over $25 billion for prefabricated homes and $10 billion in low-cost financing to affordable home builders
- Build community infrastructure by engaging with communities that “make progress on housing first”
On revenue reductions designed to encourage more home building, they propose to:
- Eliminate GST for first-time home buyers up to $1 million, and lower the GST rate on first-time buyer homes costing up to $1.5 million
- Cut municipal development charges in half for multi-unit residential housing for five years by working with provinces and territories to ensure municipalities receive additional funding to make up for all revenue lost
- Reintroduce a tax incentive for home builders known as the Multi-Unit Rental Building (MURB), which, in the 1970s, spurred tens of thousands of rental housing units across the country.
On regulatory changes, they propose to:
- Speed up approvals including through simpler building codes, advancing pre-approved standardized designs, reducing regulations on application timing, fast-tracking some builders for approval, and facilitating the conversion of existing structures into affordable housing units
New Democratic Party
On homelessness, the NDP platform proposes to:
- Create a new Housing Insecurity Prevention Benefit to help 50,000 people in critical need find homes
- Require provinces accessing a new $2-billion-per-year Communities First Fund to have strategies to end encampments and homelessness
On other investments, they propose to:
- Add $2 billion to a rental protection fund to help non-profits buy housing stock
- Have CMHC offer lower-interest, fixed-term loans
On revenue reductions designed to encourage more home building, they propose to:
- Require provinces accessing the new Communities First Fund to freeze and reduce development charges
On regulatory changes, they propose to:
Ban “predatory financial landlords” from buying any existing purpose-built rental or social housing units
Change the current Housing Accelerator Fund into an $8-billion fund that would require municipalities to allow multi-unit homes everywhere (with higher density near transit) and target 20 per cent non-market housing in every neighbourhood
Require provinces accessing the new Communities First Fund to follow new national rent control rules, end exclusionary zoning, ban renovictions, and “recognize the right of tenant unions to negotiate with landlords”