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Globe editorial: Justin Trudeau needs to make housing a primary federal responsibility
(www.theglobeandmail.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
92 points (89.0% liked)
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I love when the news tries to blame Trudeau for provincial issues instead of, y’know, the provincial leaders
The federal government could absolutely help but you are correct this is primarily a provincial responsibility and the province has all the tools to fix this but they choose not to. There's too many domestic speculators in power that have a lot to lose.
I don't buy this idea. The feds have all sorts of things they can do. Can they solve the crises alone? Of course not. But they can sure as hell help.
Let's start with capital gains on the sale of a home...
What tools do they really have, other than money?
Really, what tools do the federal government have that can be used, and have effect, in local legislation?
They have the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the same people who currently provide mortgage insurance. In their original 1945 mandate, they were responsible for building housing for returning war veterans, as well as loans to purchase them. It was only later, in the 1980s, that the building part was dropped and they took up their current role.
So the federal government has the option of returning the CMHC to its original mandate.
Like I said in the comment they could change capital gains exclusion on a primary residence. Add taxes for homes past your primary home (like Singapore). They could stop with the RRSP withdrawals for home buyers, kill the first time home buyers savings account, ban foreign buyers without all the loop holes, add legislation around cooperate ownership etc.
Other countries are doing things at the federal level. For some reason our Feda only institute programs that actively make things worse.
Of course, other counties often have it easier there. For instance, looking to our neighbours to the south, their federal government reigns supreme. It can push policy down on the states. That is not the case in Canada. The provinces are of the highest power.
Well, yes, trying to make the provinces look bad is kind of the federal government's thing. Presumably it is because it wants to convince the public that it needs that supremacy, so that one day it can take it.
The cost of living and housing crises are happening across the entire country so I would say, yes, it very much does become a question of federal policy at that point and existing federal mandates (immigration) are one of the biggest sources of high demand putting stress on housing.
Even if that federal policy is working with provinces to figure their shit out on housing.
You don't think the federal government has any responsibility for the housing crisis?
Not OP but it's clearly both a provincial and federal issue.
Both levels of government are responsible. Pretending anything otherwise is ignorant. The provinces have the majority of tools to solve this by taxing domestic speculators high amounts to force them to stop hoarding stock and in provinces like Ontario uploading public housing to the province as municipalities can't generate the revenue required to pay for it.
I don't believe the federal government can fix the problem if the provincial governments don't want help.
Considering the federal government is taking the brunt of the provincial government failures it's not really surprising the provinces aren't rushing to take action.