The recent federal election was heavily influenced by an array of housing policy platform promises. As the dust settles with Prime Minister Mark Carney at the helm of a newly energized Liberal Party, here are 10 of the most-needed steps the Liberals can take, expanding their pre-election platform from vague concept to winning strategy on the ground.
1. Major expansion of trades education: The major issue here is the dire shortage of skilled trades labour across the country. Recent clawbacks on immigration have made it even more challenging now that foreign talent isn’t being shopped into the construction sector. To deal with this issue in a domestic-focused manner, major expansion and incentivization of trades training needs to be put into action immediately as it’ll take time to ramp up. This means high school senior year feeder programs, sizeable grants and scholarships for new graduates, and significant capital investment for institutions such as the B.C. Institute of Technology to expand their current trades education offerings.
2. Invest in pre-fabricated and modular housing: Beyond the shortage of workers, the amount of time it takes to complete a new build will further challenge the ambitious federal housing targets. Increased use of pre-fab and modular housing has several key benefits: It shortens the completion timeline on a project. It means less-skilled tradespeople can assemble much of the project, which assists with that labour issue. And significantly, it also fosters a whole new pre-fab construction sector with all-manner of spinoff labour and support industries attached. Best of all, this can all be expanded and implemented within the country.
3. Establish a permanent National Housing Policy Roundtable: A mistake that both the federal and provincial governments continue to make is to attempt to solve complex housing issues using government staff with no actual experience in the housing sector. There is a better way. The Liberal government needs to create a permanent National Housing Policy Roundtable with 20-25 seats to serve as an advisory body around any new housing policy. The panel should be stocked with policy experts plucked from the private and non-profit sectors, also inclusive of Indigenous, provincial and municipal policy representatives. Whenever a new housing policy is in the works, it should be vetted by this group to pick it apart in advance. Detailed advance policy analysis would help avoid unforeseen consequences, craft better policy and assure stronger outcomes.
4. Federal assistance with development cost charges (DCC): This has been a major sticking point for regional developers as municipalities, tasked with sudden increases in housing targets by the province, have struggled to fund the development and amenity costs associated with rapid densification. The solution that many municipalities have opted for has been to attempt to pass these costs along to developers. Not only has this challenged the profitability of new builds, but it’s an added cost eventually passed along to the buyer. DCC charges have led to stalled projects across the province, which is hindering needed housing starts. The Liberals have promised a cost-sharing model with municipalities to help grapple with DCC costs and get the burden off developers. Details have thus far been sparse, but this is a critical fix that will have an immediate positive effect.
5. Reintroduce MURB: In the 1970’s the federal government implemented a Multi-Unit Rental Building Program, which provided a tax incentive for builders and inspired the creation of 200,000 units over seven years (1974-1981), the most notable expansion of rental stock in Canadian history. While costly to government, this is policy that will get the job done in terms of deep incentivization to build new rental projects. It has worked in the past, and it would work again now.
6. Tax reform: The Liberal pre-election platform promised GST relief on new homes at or under $1 million dollars. A good start, but the comparable Conservative platform suggested a threshold of 1.3 million, which is a little more market-realistic for the Metro Vancouver buyer and is very much worth reviewing for potential implementation. This policy is a nice start, but Canada is littered with multi-layered housing taxes at both the provincial and federal levels, all of which need to be reviewed, several taxes repealed, and a streamlined, more tax-competitive, buyer-friendly environment implemented.
7. Policy review: There’s a litany of housing policies that sounded good from a podium when announced, but doesn’t achieve much in terms of restoring market affordability. The foreign homebuyer ban, for example, represented less than 1.3 per cent of total market sales across British Columbia when implemented and has served to achieve very little. In reality, it has had the spinoff effect of actively discouraging international investment, which is where much of the money comes from that pays for new construction. A fulsome review of the efficacy of all current federal housing policy would be a good step, factored against concurrent provincial policy for issues of overlap and redundancy.
8. Homelessness: The pre-election Liberal platform was surprisingly thin on homelessness policy. In Metro Vancouver and across Canada this is increasingly a dire issue affecting the quality of life across communities, not the least of which are the struggling individuals in extreme need of help. We’re a G7 country, and we should be doing a heck of a lot better in helping fellow Canadians who need it.
9. Affordable housing: Expansion of grants and loans for specific high-need housing demographics would bring much-needed relief. This includes supportive housing, emergency shelters, student housing and targeted expansion of senior housing as that population segment exponentially grows in the coming years.
10. Work more collectively as three layers of government in cohesive partnership: As Canadian government grapples with rapidly expanding housing targets, economic challenges, trade issues and differing community issues, leadership needs to come from the top down in a manner that crafts a consultative team approach to housing from coast to coast with all three layers of government. I mentioned the need for a policy roundtable as item No. 3, inclusive of private sector expertise. But separate from that is the need for a detailed, careful and collaborative approach to housing within government. At times in recent years, the three levels of government have been operating contrary to each other’s goals. This needs a reset that is heavy on collaboration and a cohesive Team Canada approach.
Trevor Hargreaves is senior vice-president of government relations, marketing and communications at the B.C. Real Estate Association
