Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, defending housing measures announced in this week’s budget, says homes should not be used as tools for quick profit.
“We do not want people to think of buying homes as a way to make money rapidly,” Mr. Trudeau told a post-budget news conference held Friday in Hamilton. “Homes should be for families to grow in.”
The Prime Minister’s comments came a day after the tabling of the latest federal budget, which includes a two-year ban on home purchases by foreigners, following a pledge in the 2021 election campaign. However, many foreign buyers will be exempt from the ban, including individuals on work permits who are living in Canada.
The Prime Minister said the government will be cracking down on the “financialization” of the housing market.
“Houses aren’t supposed to be assets for wealthy investors. They are supposed to be homes where families can raise their kids and create neighborhoods and communities.”
Overall, the budget includes more than $10-billion in new spending on various housing-related initiatives, largely aimed at increasing supply.
During question period Friday, Conservative Dan Albas, the MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola, said the “so-called ban” on foreign buyers is not real. “Under this policy, a foreign national can still purchase a home. If they separate from their spouse, they can buy another home. If their child turns 18 and wants to buy the house across the street, they still can.”
He said the plan does nothing to put first-time homebuyers first, and asked why the ban is so full of holes it’s like Swiss cheese.
Replying for the government, Terry Beech, the parliamentary secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, responded to Mr. Albas by citing the key elements of the Liberal government’s housing plan.
“Our government will increase housing supply by doubling residential construction across Canada over the next 10 years. We will ensure that homes are treated as a place for families to live instead of as an investment vehicle,” said Mr. Beech.
It was the last Question Period, and chance for the opposition to question the government on the budget, for a two week break that will see Parliament resume on April 25.
On housing supply, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who attended the news conference in Hamilton along with Mr. Trudeau, said there are no easy answers to providing the housing that Canadians want, and that the federal government can work to clear some roadblocks preventing more new homes from being built.
“It’s not going to be fixed in one day. It’s not even going to be fixed in one year. We’re going to have to continue to invest and invest and invest,” she said, adding the federal government will need help from municipalities, the provinces, private sector and non-profit organizations.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES – THE BUDGET
$56B IN NEW SPENDING IN FEDERAL BUDGET – The federal government’s 2022 budget lays out more than $56-billion in new spending over six years as part of what Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says is a package that will boost innovation and green technology, but some economists say falls short of a long-term growth agenda. Story here.
BUDGET DETAILS – The federal budget promises $10-billion to make housing more affordable, $5.3-billion to provide dental care for lower-income Canadians, a sprinkling of new tax measures for individuals and the creation of an independent complaints body to address consumer complaints involving banks. Story here.
FEDERAL LOAN TO HELP UKRAINE – The federal government is proposing to assist Ukraine’s war-ravaged economy by offering a $1-billion loan through a new Canada-led international financial program. Story here.
OTTAWA DEPLOYS ARM’S LENGTH APPROACH TO INNOVATION – Ottawa is again deploying arm’s-length interventionism to spur innovation in the Canadian economy, announcing two big, top-down programs in the federal budget similar in approach to the troubled Canada Infrastructure Bank and the superclusters initiative. Story here.
PLANS ON TAX OF BANKS AND LIFE INSURERS – Ottawa’s two-part tax on Canadian banks and life insurers will bring in $6.1-billion over the next five years, according to the federal budget, about 40 per cent less than projected during the most recent federal election campaign. Story here.
PRAISE FOR BUDGET FOCUS ON HOUSING – Provincial and municipal governments praised Thursday’s federal budget for its focus on the housing crisis, including its $4-billion fund to encourage local governments to speed up construction approvals and its two-year ban on foreign home purchases meant to curb speculation. Story here.
BUDGET DETAILS HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM EXPANSION, INCLUDING DENTAL CARE – The federal government is moving ahead with the largest expansion to the country’s health-care system in decades, with plans to cover the cost of dental care for lower income Canadians and the first steps toward creating a national pharmacare program outlined in Thursday’s federal budget. Story here.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS – Federal budget 2022 highlights: What you need to know about housing, defence and climate spending. Story here.
OTHER STORIES
BUDGET IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR – Newfoundland and Labrador forecast a $351-million deficit in its spring budget tabled on Thursday, projecting a significant drop in oil royalties for the 2022-23 fiscal year at a time when oil prices are skyrocketing. Story here.
KENNEY FOE NOW AN ELECTED MEMBER OF THE PREMIER’S PARTY – Premier Jason Kenney’s arch foe Brian Jean is now a member of the Alberta legislature and expects to sit at the United Conservative caucus table despite his public displeasure with the party’s leader. Story here.
PERMANENT RESETTLEMENT OF UKRAINIAN REFUGEES MAY BE NECESSARY: UN COMMISSIONER – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the world may have to consider permanent resettlement of Ukrainian refugees if Russia’s war develops into a protracted crisis. Story here.
WONG-TAM LEAVING MUNICIPAL POLITICS – Veteran Toronto City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is leaving City Hall to run for the Ontario New Democrats in the June provincial election. Story here from CityNews.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
BROWN BALANCING MAYORAL RESPONSIBILITIES – Conservative Party leadership hopeful Patrick Brown has not officially stepped back from his mayoral duties almost a month after entering the party’s leadership race. Story here from Global News.
CHAREST TARGETS POILIEVRE – Conservative leadership hopeful Jean Charest is turning up the heat against perceived frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, taking him to task for his support of the trucker protests that took over downtown Ottawa and led to blockades at border crossings. Story here from CTV.
CANDIDATE WHEREABOUTS – Pierre Poilievre is in British Columbia on Sunday, with stops in Kelowna, Vernon and Langley. Leslyn Lewis will be in British Columbia next week, starting Tuesday, with stops in Penticton and Vernon and then Chilliwack and Abbotsford and Vancouver through Thursday. MP Scott Aitchison was in Saskatchewan on Friday.
THIS AND THAT
THE COMMONS – The House is adjourned until Monday, April. 25 at 11 a.m. ET.
CALEY OUT AS LIBERAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR – Weeks after the communications director for the federal Conservative Party announced his departure, the senior communications director for the federal Liberals has also announced his exit. Braeden Caley has had the Liberal job for six years. The former press secretary and policy and communications director for former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson did not explain why he’s leaving or where he’s going. In a social-media post, he wrote, “Soon I’ll share more about what I’ll get up to next (including, hopefully, a diet of a *lot* less pizza).” After eight years as communications director for the Conservatives, Cory Hann announced late last month that he was leaving.
MEETING ON DISASTER RESPONSE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA – On Monday, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and British Columbia Solicitor General Mike Farnworth will hold a news conference in Vancouver after the third meeting of the Committee of British Columbia and Federal Ministers on Disaster Response and Climate Resilience.
THE DECIBEL
Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast took listeners inside the “lockup” where journalists got an advance look at the federal budget. The Decibel was in the lockup at a hotel in downtown Ottawa, where Globe journalists explained the main takeaways from the budget, covering spending in the areas of housing, defence, reconciliation, finance, immigration, inflation and more. Guests on Friday episode were the Globe’s Bill Curry, Steven Chase, John Ibbitson, Rachelle Younglai, Kristy Kirkup, Kathryn Blaze Baum, Mark Rendell, and Patrick Brethour, as well as Scotiabank Economics Director Rebekah Young. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Hamilton, the Prime Minister held private meetings on Friday. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland were scheduled to meet with local families and make an announcement highlighting Budget 2022 investments in housing, and then hold a media availability. The Prime Minister was also scheduled to meet with members of the local Ukrainian community.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
OPINION – THE BUDGET
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon grading Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s federal budget: some passes, many question marks: “That said, today’s deficit is modest enough that the debt-to-GDP ratio is back on a downward slope. And Ms. Freeland has mostly avoided the fallacy of trying to fight inflation by handing out free money. Many of her provincial counterparts, in contrast, have been unable to restrain themselves. Alberta is temporarily ditching its gas tax; Ontario is refunding vehicle licensing fees; British Columbia is cutting public car insurance rates; Quebec is sending $500 cheques to almost everyone, just because. Still, her government couldn’t resist the temptation to hand out money in the one place where it’s most likely to stoke inflation: housing.”
Patrick Brethour (The Globe and Mail)on how the Liberals’ ‘spend, tax and pray’ 2022 federal budget devoid of bold growth measures: “The Liberals correctly diagnose the deep-rooted economic problems that Canada faces, and that threaten to mire this country in a low-wage, less prosperous future. An intensifying global competition for capital, a persistent lack of private-sector investment and the resulting flaccid productivity growth are huge challenges that the budget acknowledges. “This budget is focused on economic growth for today, tomorrow and for decades to come,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Thursday. The government even gives a nod to a recent report from the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development that places Canada dead last in potential economic growth through to 2060. And Ms. Freeland framed the issue well, saying that it comes down to ensuring that the next generation of Canadians “have more prosperous lives than we do.” It’s just that the government is not proposing any policy shake-up that would alter the projection of Canada’s last-place standing in that critical economic race.”
Rob Carrick (The Globe and Mail)on the Liberals staking their reputation as inflation-fighters with help for homebuyers in budget 2022: “Inflation today is caused by low interest rates, tangled global supply chains, disruptions related to war in Ukraine and the many households eager to spend money after two years of pandemic lockdowns. A government can’t fix that kind of stuff in a budget, but it has to act like it can. So while the word “inflation” appears 86 times in the document released Thursday, the only fresh, highlighted measure that isn’t connected to housing is coverage for dental care, which starts this year for children under 12 in lower income families.”
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail)on how the 2022 Liberal budget has a before-the-war feel as Ottawa abandons oil-industry lifelines: “In the annex of the federal budget, there’s an analysis of a “high-impact scenario” in which the invasion of Ukraine doesn’t end quickly, and the reduction in Russian energy exports leads to an even sharper spike in global oil and gas prices. This would cause the price for North American oil, currently at just below US$100 per barrel, to hit $180 before the end of June. This would contribute to a number of undesirable outcomes, including weaker economic activity and higher inflation. Even for Canada’s oil and natural gas industry, which would initially benefit, the high prices would lead to a collapse in demand by 2023. But you wouldn’t know this scenario is even a possibility based on much of the budget text.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail)on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s missed opportunity: “Amid the war in Ukraine, Ms. Freeland’s budget amounts to a missed opportunity to position Canada as the world’s most responsible provider of the natural resources the planet needs now, and those that it will increasingly need in the future, to transition to a low-carbon economy. The Liberals are still constrained by their unwillingness to embrace Canada’s strengths. And that only makes the country weaker.”
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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
