The Conservatives will table a bill in the House of Commons intended to speed up the process of building more homes and stem “ballooning bureaucracy,” party leader Pierre Poilievre announced Sept. 14.
Dubbed the “Building Homes, Not Bureaucracy Act,” the bill would tell municipalities to increase the number of housing units allowed by 15 percent or risk having federal infrastructure funds withheld. Bonuses would also be afforded to cities that go beyond the 15 percent increase.
“Those that build more than 15 percent in extra homebuilding will get a building bonus. If you miss your target by one percent, your target goes down one percent,” Mr. Poilievre said at a press conference in Vancouver.
“I will not pay them to build up their bureaucracies anymore,” he said, adding he intends to table the bill as the House of Commons begins its fall session on Sept. 18.
The Tories say the bill is intended to incentivize municipalities to hasten building permitting and site plan approvals, to help projects break ground faster in larger cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. It could also reduce taxes and levies imposed on developers, to encourage more construction, Mr. Poilievre said.
Under the bill, the federal government’s infrastructure department would field complaints from citizens about so-called “NIMBYism” (Not In My Backyard). Should cases legitimately compromise development, the feds could withhold transit and infrastructure dollars.
“He created an accelerator fund that takes a year and a half to get paperwork done. That sounds like a decelerator,” Mr. Poilievre said, adding the deal with London doesn’t include building beyond the municipality’s 6,000-unit commitment.
“Nothing was added, except that $74 million was spent for nothing,” he said.
The Liberal government says many other Accelerator deals are in the works with municipalities. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) would not provide figures to The Epoch Times on the number of applications received, rejected, and being studied.
In a release on Sept. 14, Mr. Poilievre took aim at the CMHC, saying he would “cut the bonuses and salaries, and if needed, fire the gatekeepers” at the agency if it could not approve projects within 60 days.
The Tories’ new bill would also remove GST on developments that offer below-market rental prices while sponsoring the initiative with the $4 billion currently earmarked for the Housing Accelerator Fund.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser said on Sept. 13 that his government will announce a series of measures in the coming weeks in regard to resolving the affordability crisis.
