New pledge removes GST on homes up to $1.3m, going beyond Carney's recent offer
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is now vowing to eliminate the GST on new homes priced up to $1.3 million, upping the pressure on Liberal leader Mark Carney just weeks ahead of Canada’s federal election.
Poilievre’s updated promise, announced Tuesday, builds on his previous plan to remove the GST for homes under $1 million, a policy Carney matched last week in a bid to attract middle-class voters struggling with housing costs.
But Poilievre is now aiming higher. He says the $1 million cap isn’t enough in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where home prices have long outpaced incomes.
“Carney just doesn’t understand that Canadians can no longer afford to live in towns and cities they grew up in,” he said in a campaign video.
Poilievre claims the GST cut could save homebuyers as much as $65,000 and help bring relief to buyers in high-cost markets. The plan is also pitched as a tool to boost new housing construction.
While both major parties now support removing the GST on new homes under $1 million, Poilievre is positioning his expanded version as the original, and accusing Carney of copying his homework.
“Only months ago, Liberals voted unanimously against my idea of taking the GST off new homes,” Poilievre tweeted. “Now, a few days before calling an election, they plagiarize me again.”
Carney has also recently embraced other policies long pushed by Conservatives, such as scrapping the consumer carbon tax and walking back a capital gains tax increase. It’s a clear signal that the Liberals are trying to appeal to centrist voters, especially younger Canadians struggling to break into the housing market.
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) welcomed the GST commitments from both parties. CHBA CEO Kevin Lee called it “a step in the right direction” and said that eliminating the tax would help both first-time buyers and builders hit by rising construction costs.
“In light of the tariff war with the United States, it is doubly important that all avenues to improve housing affordability for Canadians are explored,” Lee said in a statement. “Addressing the GST on new housing is certainly a step in the right direction… and is long overdue.”
Poilievre says he would fund the tax cut by scrapping “bureaucratic” Liberal housing programs like the $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund, and claims his plan would result in the construction of 36,000 new homes annually.
But some in the development community say that while tax relief helps, it doesn’t solve the root problem.
“Housing starts are collapsing in large parts of the country, including Ontario, and especially in Toronto,” said Chris Spoke, a real estate developer and housing advocate. “This is due to restrictive land use rules, Byzantine approvals processes, and high tax burdens.”
Spoke added that removing the GST on homes up to $1.3 million “will certainly help at the margin” but won’t fix the deeper barriers that are slowing down new supply.
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