Parliament Declares Canada Is In A Housing Crisis

September 19, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – After nine years, Canadians are living in a housing hell. The cost of rent, downpayments and mortgages has all doubled, with Trudeau presiding over the worst housing inflation in the G7 relative to income. Tent encampments are now common in all our major cities and young people have given up on ever buying a home.

Today, the House of Commons voted to accept this miserable reality after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government. In a historic vote, all parties declared that Canadians are suffering through an unprecedented housing crisis. Trudeau caused this crisis with nine years of broken promises and failed policies, and the Bloc and the NDP supported him through it all.

Housing is now so expensive that 61 percent of young Canadians, aged 18-34, are concerned about their ability to pay their rent or mortgage over the next 12 months while 28 percent of Canadians are considering moving to another country for greater affordability. This is hardly surprising after the average cost of rent for a one-bedroom surged to $2,187 in August. Nobody can afford this.

This crisis happened because the NDP-Liberal Government have failed to build enough homes for Canadians to live in. Earlier this week, Trudeau’s own Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) showed that Canada is building fewer homes than we did in the 1970s, when we had half the population. And in spite of Trudeau’s promises and photo-op fund, which gives billions of dollars to the same gatekeepers who created the housing crisis in the first place, housing starts have declined 13 percent in August 2024 compared to August 2023.

This vote in the House of Commons is a damning indictment on Justin Trudeau’s government. Yet, even though the Bloc and the NDP accept that Trudeau has devastated Canadians’ dreams of homeownership, they have pledged to prop up his failed government anyway in next week’s non-confidence vote.

Enough is enough. Canadians need an election so they can vote for a government who will get homes built fast by firing the gatekeepers and tying federal infrastructure dollars to housing completions. Only then can Common Sense Conservatives bring homes that Canadians can afford.