Westman MPs give budget a fail on housing

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This article was published 17/04/2024 (716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Despite billions in spending announced in this year’s federal budget, Westman’s Conservative members of Parliament don’t believe the Liberals’ new housing initiatives will help address the country’s housing shortage.

The Liberals’ ninth budget since they took power in 2015 includes a $40-billion program providing loans to build apartments, $14 billion to build and repair affordable homes and $4 billion for the Housing Accelerator Fund, among other measures.

In a phone interview from Ottawa, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Dan Mazier said despite all the Housing Accelerator Fund agreements between the federal government and municipalities so far, the program has yet to build any houses.

“They’ll talk the talk and they’ll announce money, but they can’t complete the objective,” Mazier said. “We’re building fewer houses than we did in the 1970s, when we had half the population.”

He said the country must give rural municipalities, provinces and developers a pathway to building houses.

Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire laid blame for part of the housing issues the country is facing at the feet of the Liberals’ spending, which he said has driven up interest rates through inflationary deficits and made it harder to buy a home.

“We’ve been saying all along that the prime minister, Mr. Trudeau, is not worth the cost,” Maguire said by phone. “He’s doubled the rent in the last five years, he’s doubled mortgage payments and he’s doubled the down payments to purchase a home.”

The local MP argued that the Conservatives’ plan to require cities to increase homebuilding by 15 per cent per year in order to receive federal funding would be better at incentivizing municipalities to eliminate bureaucracy from housing developments than the Liberals’ programs.

Last year, the city applied to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund for money to help spur new housing construction in Brandon.

While Brandon has started to implement measures contained within its application to the fund, like a move toward more inclusive zoning and the creation of an incentive program for developers to build denser housing projects, the city is not included on the budget’s list of communities receiving funding from it.

Reached by phone from Regina on Tuesday, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said Brandon will receive funding from the program but is waiting to hear when the government will formally announce it, as well as how much will be received.

One of the housing measures Ottawa is pursuing is to consider selling land owned by the federal government and Canada Post so that homes can be developed on them.

While the budget does not specifically mention Brandon, a map showing “sample Canada Post properties that could be unlocked for housing” has a marker placed on Brandon’s location.

Beyond housing, both Maguire and Mazier criticized the budget’s $40-billion deficit and pointed out that for the first time, the federal government will be spending more on paying back its debts than it will on health care.

To help pay for the new spending, the budget proposes to increase the inclusion rate for capital gains above $250,000 from one-half to two-thirds and boosting tax rates for the country’s highest earners.

“It’s not going to do anything to put any more money in your pocket — all it’s going to do is put more money in the government’s pocket,” Mazier said.

By comparison, Mazier said his party would eliminate the carbon tax if it forms the next government and argued it would save Canadians money on fuel, groceries and heating.

While it may look good up front, Maguire said, the country needs wealthier individuals and larger corporations to invest in the country. Instead, he advocated for lower taxes to incentivize them to do more business in Canada.

“That’s how you bring taxation down,” he said. “You still raise more tax because you’ve got more business here, more processing, more development, more manufacturing — that’s the best way to be able to do it.”

While this year’s budget features a carbon rebate for small- and medium-sized businesses, both MPs said the tax should be removed completely.

The one item in the budget Mazier had praise for was an increase to the lifetime capital gains exemption on the sale of small businesses as well as farming and fishing properties from about $1 million to $1.25 million.

Brandon received a specific mention in the budget relating to the $43 million in low-interest loans the city is being provided by the Canada Infrastructure Bank to help pay for continuing upgrades to the municipal wastewater treatment plant and the southwest lift station project.

“Fast growing communities, like the City of Brandon, require not only significant new home construction but also investments in water and wastewater systems and other local infrastructure,” the budget document says.

“Paying for this new infrastructure can be challenging, especially where the up-front costs would burden existing residents. By lowering the cost of borrowing and taking on some of the risk associated with new development, the CIB’s investment can help municipalities build the infrastructure needed to support thousands of new homes across the country.”

Fawcett previously told the Sun that the agreement will save Brandon around $1 million per year in debt servicing costs compared to traditional borrowing.

He said Tuesday that city staff are preparing a letter to federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser to inquire about how Brandon can access some of the $6 billion in funding this year’s budget promises for water, wastewater, stormwater and solid waste infrastructure to help service new homes.

On top of that, he said there may be funding available for projects being undertaken by nearby First Nations that Brandon can piggyback onto, referencing the extension of municipal services to the Waywayseecappo gas bar just north of the Trans-Canada Highway as a possible example.

“The only way we could do that is with federal government assistance,” Fawcett said.

Maguire said he hopes that the Canada Infrastructure Bank projects will help, but said the Liberal government announced billions of dollars in projects back in 2016 but only one has come to fruition so far.

“We’re thankful for anything that we can get in our region for those kinds of announcements, but all I’m saying is we’ve seen these announcements before but it’s taken years for them to come into effect,” he said.

This year’s budget has earmarked $6.9 million over four years, starting in the 2025-26 fiscal year, for the Department of National Defence to build 1,400 new homes and renovate 2,500 more on military bases across the country.

The Sun reached out to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office to see if any of that funding will be going to CFB Shilo, but did not hear back by deadline.

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