Various options are on the table, says Fraser
Tax incentives and financing arrangements for builders are among the measures being considered by the federal government to inject some much-needed urgency into the pace of home construction in Canada, according to housing minister Sean Fraser.
Speaking to CBC’s Rosemary Barton at the weekend, Fraser spelled out some of the policies under consideration by lawmakers to boost homebuilding and address the chronic lack of inventory across the country’s housing market.
“There’s a range that we’re considering right now,” he said. “Some could include potential tax incentives for builders to build [and] some could include other low-cost financing arrangements.”
The government is prioritizing spending money that’s already been allocated for existing programs, Fraser emphasized, while he noted his “deep concern” over the recent spate of interest rate increases introduced by the Bank of Canada.
“Though I respect completely the independence of the Bank, I was pleased to see that they paused any rate hikes at this particular interval,” he said, “and I’m hoping that we can continue to fight inflation to have the Bank bring those interest rates down over time.”
Government weighing up other measures
While allocating federal land to rental housing and removing the GST on affordable housing projects are under consideration, Fraser said the government “want[s] to be very careful about how we design some of these programs, because we don’t want to be in a position where we create tax incentives that end up subsidizing luxury apartments.”
The minister’s comments arrived after federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre lambasted the government’s approach to the housing crisis during a speech to the party’s policy convention in Quebec on Friday.
The Carleton MP accused bureaucrats at the federal housing agency of “actually slowing down financing for builders trying to build affordable apartments” and said he would link the number of federal dollars for local governments to the number of new homes built in their cities.
