As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party and Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives both announce plans to solve the country's housing crisis, one policy analyst is warning Canada's dependence on rising home prices is one of the biggest obstacles to restoring affordability in the real estate market.
"I don't hear yet any of those party leaders talking about how they want to break our country's addiction to high and rising home prices," says Paul Kershaw, founder and lead researcher at the Generation Squeeze think tank at the University of British Columbia.
The housing crisis has also had an outsized impact on younger Canadians, according to Kershaw, who have been kept out of the incredibly hot market, while existing homeowners are able to use their "wealth windfalls" to buy investment properties.
"We then rent out to young people at very high rents," Kershaw told CTV News Channel’s Todd van der Heyden on Thursday. "We get the wealth, they get no equity."
AN "INTERESTING DAY" IN HOUSING POLITICS
Pressure has been increasing on Canada's political leaders as fears about Canada's housing crisis grow, with the federal government announcing it will remove the GST on construction of new rental apartment buildings.
"I think this is actually an interesting day politically," Kershaw says. "I love to see this competition between the Liberals and the Conservatives."
But Kershaw also warns it's key that new housing policy doesn't "inflate the value of what already exists" because years of historically low interest rates have caused "corollary damage" by driving up prices of existing properties.
"We need to incentivize and make it cheaper to build new stuff."
THE IMPACTS OF NIMBYISM
One of the key challenges to increasing the country's housing density is NIMBYism, a problem Kershaw warns is a particular concern in Canada's cities.
"Neighbourhoods really inflect the way in which councillors get elected."
Kershaw believes that tying federal funding to housing density will be a key way to incentivize municipalities to build more units, by taking the "pressure" off municipal leaders because the federal government is "taking on some of the political heat."
GRADING POLITICAL LEADERS
The Liberals have been plagued by slumping poll numbers with most suggesting that Canadians believe the Conservatives would do a better job dealing with affordability and housing concerns.
However Kershaw says that nearly every political party in Canada should get poor grades on dealing with the housing crisis in the country.
"Have you yet heard any of them say; 'Our objective is to grow a thriving economy in which home prices stall?'" Kershaw says. "Until we hear that language… we are not going to restore affordability."
Click the video at the top of this article to watch the full interview.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet congratulated Donald Trump Wednesday morning on his second United States presidential election win, amid questions about how the federal government intends to navigate a second term.
Following president-elect Donald Trump's decisive election victory, there are sure to be significant knock-on effects for Canada. Here's a look at the different areas in which a second Trump presidency may affect Canadians.
Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris conceded the U.S. election to Republican Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon, telling her supporters that her 'heart is full.'
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Following president-elect Donald Trump's decisive election victory, there are sure to be significant knock-on effects for Canada. Here's a look at the different areas in which a second Trump presidency may affect Canadians.
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The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
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If you find yourself sleepy during your daily activities in your older age, you may need to consider it more than an inconvenience — since the fatigue may indicate you’re at higher risk for developing a condition that can lead to dementia, a new study has found.
British health officials say they have identified four cases of the new, more infectious version of mpox that first emerged in Congo, marking the first time the variant has caused a cluster of illness outside of Africa. Scientists said the risk to the public remains low.
An emperor penguin surprised locals when it appeared on a beach in Australia after making an epic journey of thousands of miles from its home in Antarctica.
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