After 8 years of Justin Trudeau, real estate prices have doubled. We are facing an unprecedented housing shortage. The median price for a home in Quebec was $230,000 in 2015. In early 2023, it was $415,000.
With rising interest rates, the monthly cost of a mortgage has increased by 28.5% since April 2022.
On the eve of the big move on July 1st, the housing shortage also drives up rents; in Montreal by 14% on average since spring 2022, in Quebec by 19%, in Saguenay by 17% and in Trois-Rivières by 24%. For many Quebecers, the threat of becoming homeless is real.
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This discrepancy cannot be explained by lack of space or global market trends: although Canada has the lowest number of housing units per capita of any G7 country, we have the largest available square footage. Even less is it explained by wealthier buyers; as your columnist Michel Girard pointed out. The average salary of workers in Quebec has risen 23.7% since 2018, while home prices have risen 71%.
The problem is a lack of supply; We are not building enough and local regulations are blocking the start of construction. The Conservative Party of Canada is the only federal party offering solutions.
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Ottawa annually pays over $1 billion in transfers to Quebec’s municipal infrastructure programs, including the Gas Tax Program (TECQ) and the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI). As Prime Minister, I will renegotiate current agreements with the Quebec government to make them less restrictive, but I will call for new terms to encourage municipalities to remove barriers to new housing construction.
Municipalities that change their building codes and issue more building permits receive bonuses. But the largest cities, including Montreal and Quebec, will have their funds withheld unless they increase new housing construction on their territories by at least 15% a year. If they exceed this goal, they receive bonuses.
A Poilievre government will also sell more than 6,000 federal buildings in Canada for conversion into affordable housing. Finally, Justin Trudeau’s inflationary deficits, which are driving up interest rates and the cost of building materials, must be eliminated, and the immigration system he destroyed must be repaired to address the sector’s labor shortages.
The housing crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time, threatening to deprive a generation of young Canadians of the opportunities their parents took for granted. Let’s work together to give them hope.
Pierre Poilievre, Chairman of the Conservative Party of Canada
