Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre claimed that the housing provisions in the 2024 federal budget introduced by the Liberals this week contain much of the same language as their 2015 platform, questioning why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making similar promises after nine years in power.
Ahead of the vote on the 2024 federal budget, Mr. Poilievre addressed the House during Question Period, claiming that the proposed policies on housing were very similar to those made by the Liberals in their first budget tabled in 2015.
“And on that question of his ambitious housing plan, I decided to read all about it in their 2015 platform. They said we will make it easier for Canadians to find an affordable place to call home. That was nine years ago,” Mr. Poilievre said.
“They doubled the cost since that promise was made. And then they repeated the promise yesterday. Why would we expect the same promise with the same programs and the same prime minister to be kept this time?” he added.
Mr. Trudeau answered the question from Mr. Poilievre, saying, “Our housing plan will unlock 3.87 million new homes by cutting red tape by reforming zoning, by lowering costs of homebuilding, by using public lands and vacant government offices for housing.”
The proposal to turn public land and buildings into additional housing is also listed in the 2015 Liberal Party platform, which Mr. Poilievre noted.
The platform states, “We will conduct an inventory of all available federal lands and buildings that could be repurposed, and make some of these lands available at low cost for affordable housing in communities where ether is pressing need.”
According to Mr. Poilievre, however, only 13 homes were ever built on public lands, adding that “yesterday, he promised a rapid review of all the federal land portfolios. Rapid review. How rapid? Another nine years?”
Mr. Trudeau blamed the former Tory government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not investing in Canadians and said that the Liberal plan to raise taxes on the top 1 percent of earners would secure a stronger future for young people.
Earlier in the day during a speech before the Liberal caucus, Mr. Trudeau touted the Liberal plan to raise taxes on those earning over $250,000 per year from capital gain, making two-thirds of the income taxable rather than the current one-half.
He argued that buying a home was out of reach for many young Canadians and that the current economy is not working for members of the Millennial Generation and Generation Z in the same way it did for their parents and grandparents.
According to Mr. Poilievre, the average cost of renting an apartment in 2015, when the Liberals first came to power, was just $973 a month. A studio apartment in Canada currently averages $1,564 per month and a one-bedroom costs $1,926 on average.
In response, Mr. Trudeau noted that Canada’s population was “growing faster than our fellow countries’ around the world. And that is a good thing. It is a good thing that we continue to draw on people to be successful in this country.”
