OTTAWA — Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has doubled down on his plan to get rid of the Housing Accelerator Fund if he’s elected prime minister in the next federal election.
Poilievre, speaking to Dougall Media reporters on Wednesday via Zoom, said the fund isn’t working and instead is just putting more bureaucracy in the way of getting housing built.
Presented with the fact Thunder Bay and other communities have been hitting housing targets, Poilievre fought back, asking what it’s actually meant for affordability.
“How much have housing prices come down in Thunder Bay over the last two years?” he said.
“The rent is going up. Politicians like to get other people’s money. So, the fact that your mayor wants more of other people’s money does not surprise me at all.”
Poilievre said he doesn’t want federal money to go to municipal politicians to spend.
“I want it to go to you when you buy a house. What we’ve seen is the more money you give to municipal governments, the worse the housing crisis becomes. What do they do with it? They hire more bureaucrats. And what do those bureaucrats do? They block home building,” Poilievre said.
“The reason we have the fewest homes per capita in the G7, even though we have by far the most land to build on, is because government bureaucrats tax and bock new home building. One-third of the cost of every new home built in Ontario is taxes.”
Delays and zoning add even more to the cost, added Poilievre, who has promised to remove the GST on the purchase of new homes under $1 million, as part of the Conservative Party platform.
Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff in late October said Poilievre’s plan would hurt communities like Thunder Bay.
The $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, introduced in 2022, was meant to provide money to communities to help speed up housing and apartment development. An additional $400 million was added to the pot last April. Thunder Bay got $21 million under the program.
It’s not working, Poilievre said.
“Why is it Americans have 25 per cent to 45 per cent lower housing prices? Why is it that Toronto is almost twice as expensive as Chicago. Why is it that Vancouver is way more expensive than Seattle? The answer is on the Canadian side of the border, we have horrendous local bureaucracies that are blocking home building,” the Conservative leader said.
“So, I will take the money away from the bureaucrats and the politicians that caused the problem – and they’re all going to squeal – they’re going to call (media) and complain. But I’m going to use that money to cut the GST by fifty-grand a home.”
Poilievre added he plans to put in powerful incentives for municipalities to speed up the permit process, free up land and cut development charges to allow developers to build more housing units.
The City of Thunder Bay is hoping to recoup some of the $5-million cost of its proposed temporary shelter village through the Housing Accelerator Fund.
As of the end of September the city had issued 310 new building permit for new homes in Thunder Bay.
