Canada's federal budget set to allocate billions to tackle housing crisis, says minister
Reuters
Published Mar 18, 2024 14:50
By Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's federal budget, due next month, is likely to allocate billions of dollars for investing in building homes and low cost housing programs, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said on Monday.
Canada faces a housing affordability crisis as a rapidly increasing immigrant population has far outpaced the number of available homes.
Stubbornly high inflation and interest rates at their highest in 22 years have also driven up rent and mortgage costs.
"I don't want to necessarily preview what's going to be revealed in the upcoming federal budget, but there needs to be very substantial investments (for housing)," Fraser told the media on the sidelines of a housing conference in Ottawa.
The expenditure will cover building homes and also support for low cost housing programs, Fraser said.
"When we put those low cost financing programs on the table, we are talking about billions, sometimes tens of billions of dollars to help support the construction of new homes," he said, without specifying if all will be part of the federal budget announcement or mentioning precise figures.
"So, this has got to be a substantial level of investment with the combined direct spend and financing program and certainly total of billions of dollars."
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to present her budget in the Parliament on April 16.
As housing affordability emerges as a hot-button issue ahead of next year's election, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's main opponent, has blamed the Liberal government for the crisis.
The government has responded with a series of measures to boost supply over the last year, but it has said they will not provide immediate relief.
To keep pace with the rising population, Canada needs to build 315,000 new residences every year between now and 2030, or more than a third above the pace of current housing completions, according to Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist at RBC (TSX:RY).
Get The App
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.