Ottawa plans to spend $500 million to purchase land from other levels of government in a bid to create more affordable housing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced.
The federal government is earmarking $500 million in its 2024 budget for the purchase of public lands from provincial and municipal governments, Mr. Trudeau said at an April 24 press conference in Oakville, Ont. The plan is to build 250,000 new homes on those lands by 2031.
“See right now, governments across Canada are sitting on surplus underused and vacant public lands like empty office towers or low-rise buildings; there is great potential to build more housing,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Once purchased, the federal government would not sell the lands to private parties but would lease them, the prime minister said, adding that the lands would remain publicly owned.
The public lands used for housing would not be leased as single-family properties but would instead be leased to co-ops and “affordable rentals,” Mr. Trudeau said, adding that long-term ownership would not be an issue.
Lands with existing federal buildings on them could also be expanded for housing, Mr. Trudeau said, noting that apartments or homes could be built on top of some of the more than 1,700 post offices across the country.
Housing Crisis
Tackling the housing crisis has been one of the main focuses of the Liberal government’s 2024 budget. When asked by reporters if the proposed budget measures go far enough, Mr. Trudeau said they alone were not strong enough to tackle the affordability crisis.“No one order of government can solve the housing crisis on its own,” Mr. Trudeau said, adding that municipalities would need to “step up” to address densification. He also called on the provinces to build more housing infrastructure such as wastewater plants.
Mr. Poilievre has also argued that housing prices have “doubled” since Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal Party came to power in 2015.
