Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to cut home-building taxes by $100,000 per house by eliminating the federal sales tax and incentivizing municipalities to lower their building taxes on newly constructed homes.
The implementation of the two measures would result in a reduction of about $50,000 each in the cost of purchasing a new home, Poilievre said. A Conservative government would also require municipalities to publicly report their development charges and explain how the federal reimbursement would be used, “so Canadian municipalities are accountable when they build.”
The Conservative leader said currently a significant portion of the cost of a new home goes toward taxes, such as sales tax, land transfer tax, and development taxes. Thousands of dollars are also spent on other “soft costs” such as zoning fees, consultants, lobbyists, and lawyers, he added.
“More money from a new home today, built in Canada, goes to bureaucrats in office buildings than goes to the carpenters, electricians, and plumbers that actually build the home here in Toronto,” Poilievre said during the press conference in Milton, Ont.
Poilievre said his government would pay municipalities half the cost of cutting their building taxes, meaning that a municipality that cuts building taxes by $50,000 will receive $25,000 from the federal government.
The Conservative leader said that when combined with his previous pledge to get rid of the sales tax on new homes of up to $1.3 million, this would amount to a savings of approximately $100,000 per home.
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The Conservatives have also previously announced their housing plan would require municipalities to expedite the permit process and free up land to enable a 15 percent increase in annual home construction as a condition for receiving federal infrastructure funding.
Liberals’ Modular Homes
Poilievre took time during the press conference to criticize Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s plan to double the pace of residential housing construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year through a new federal housing entity dubbed Build Canada Homes. This entity would plan bulk orders of prefabricated units to “create sustained demand” and expand apprenticeship opportunities.
Brookfield Asset Management, the investment firm formerly chaired by Carney, has invested in modular homes, Poilievre noted. Brookfield spent $5 billion to acquire Modulaire Group in 2021, and now sells modular home sites for up to $325 million.
“So he’s got another conflict of interest that will be good for him, good for bureaucrats, but won’t build any houses for Canadians,” Poilievre said.
Carney has said he would work with Canada’s ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein to set up conflict-of-interest “screens” to allow him to recuse himself from decisions related to companies he previously worked for.
Carney’s campaign previously told The Epoch Times that he would “surpass” all applicable ethics rules if he became prime minister.
On housing, the Liberals have also promised to remove the GST on new homes costing under $1 million.
