Conservatives Plan to Axe the GST on New Homes

Plus, Parliament is still paralyzed, demanding the release of an unredacted immigration report, a record number of Canadians visit food banks, and marking All Saints Day.

Only the Conservatives are offering hope to Canadians who have dreams of owning their own home one day. This week, conservative leader Pierre Poilievre announced that a Conservative government will axe the sales tax (GST) on new homes sold for under $1 million.

This proposal is necessary after the NDP-Liberal government made it impossible for the average Canadian to afford a home. Housing costs have doubled in the 9 years under this government, rising faster than in any other G7 country. In Calgary, the average home price increased by 13.2 percent year-over-year to $621,943 in September. While that price is unaffordable for many families, the housing crisis is far worse across other metropolitan areas of Canada. In Toronto, the average home price in September was $1,107,291, and in Vancouver, the average home price in September was a whopping $1,252,066. How could any young individual look at these home prices and think they will ever be able to afford a home? In fact, 80 percent of Canadians believe homeownership is for the very wealthy and not for them. The conservative proposal will make entry level homes available once again for first-time homebuyers and families ready to establish themselves.

A wide range of new policies will need to be implemented before housing prices are affordable once again, and that includes eliminating the GST on new homes. This policy proposal is necessary because back in October of 2015, the month before the Liberals formed government, it took only 39 percent of the median pre-tax household income to cover home ownership costs. Now, it takes nearly 60 percent. In some provinces, government taxes account for more than 30 percent of the cost of a new home, and the federal government is taking in a huge chunk of that share. One such tax is the GST, which adds $50,000 in costs to a $1 million home.

Conservatives will fund this homebuyers’ tax cut by eliminating $8 billion of bureaucratic programs that NDP-Liberals admit have not built a single home. Also, the tax cut will spark 30,000 extra homes built each year, generating more income for construction workers and businesses as well as $2.1 billion of revenue for the government.

Among the other policies a Conservative government will implement, in order to fix the NDP-Liberal government’s housing crisis include introducing the Building the Homes Not Bureaucracy Act which will require city governments to increase homebuilding by at least 15% to qualify for federal funding, ensuring more homes are built faster. Our common-sense plan includes selling federal land and buildings to spur housing projects, directing federal funds to support skilled trades, and eliminating the carbon tax on building materials to lower costs. Additionally, we will manage population growth alongside housing stock to prevent shortages and keep housing within reach for Canadians. We will not micro-manage the planning departments of cities, towns and counties the way the Liberals are attempting to do through their programs to strong arm municipal politicians. We will set a national level target for federal infrastructure funding and the municipal politicians will be able to consider whether and how they can reach those targets to obtain more federal funding.

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For over a month now, debate in Parliament has been paralyzed due to the NDP-Liberal government’s refusal to hand over evidence of corruption documents related to the Green Slush Fund to the RCMP. This has meant no legislation or motions have been debated over the past few weeks. This paralysis is entirely the fault of the Liberal government with 11,000 documents remaining missing and thousands of other pages still unlawfully redacted.

The crux of the Green Slush Fund scandal is that Canadians have been defrauded to the tune of nearly $400 million as their taxpayer's dollars were transferred to Liberal insiders under the Sustainable Technology Development Canada fund. An investigation by the Auditor General found that hundreds of millions of dollars were not just misspent but also corruptly awarded, sometimes to companies of board members who were making the decisions at board meetings. Additionally, 82 percent of the funding transactions approved by the board during a five-year sample by the Auditor General were found to have conflicts of interest. Nearly $60 million of that funding were awarded to projects that had nothing to do with funding green technology innovation.

Due to this staggering corruption, all opposition parties voted that the Liberal government should hand over all Green Slush Fund documents to the RCMP In June 2024. When the Liberal government refused to hand over all documents by the deadline in September 2024, the Liberal Speaker of the House of Commons ordered all parliamentary debate be halted until the Liberals give the documents to the RCMP. They are effectively in contempt of Parliament. This dysfunction can end and parliamentarians can return to normal work if the Liberals release the documents; it’s that simple.

Watch part of my speech below, where I spoke in Parliament regarding the Liberal's refusal to hand over the Green Slush Fund documents to the RCMP:

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I successfully passed a motion at immigration committee that would require the Liberal immigration minister to release an unredacted report within 30 calendar days that includes critical information on the international student program policy changes. The immigration minister previously gave parliamentarians on the immigration committee a redacted version of the reasoning for their decision to raise financial requirements and change other rules; however, committee members are by default entitled to an unlimited right of access to government documentation. Considering that the immigration committee will soon be conducting a study on the international student program, we parliamentarians must have access to all relevant government documents to help us conduct an open and transparent study on this hot-button issue.

This NDP-Liberal government has destroyed Canada’s immigration system, which was once the envy of the world. Even the Liberal immigration minister has admitted that they caused the system to “run out of control.” As a result of their incompetency, the international student program has been allowed to become rampant with fraud and abuse. Canadians deserve to know the truth about how the NDP-Liberals destroyed the immigration system, which is why access to this unredacted report is necessary.

Watch me read the motion into the record at immigration committee:

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The NDP-Liberal government’s appalling economic record has led to a record number of Canadians visiting food banks. According to the recently released Food Banks Canada’s 2024 Hunger Report, food banks recorded a historic 2,059,636 visits in March 2024. This is an increase of six percent from last year and a shocking 90 percent increase from 2019. Moreover, a third of these visits were made by children.

As a result of these record number of visits, nearly 30 percent of food banks across the network reported running out of food in the last twelve months. Another 56 percent reported giving out less food to avoid running out before they could serve everyone. In 2021, these numbers were 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Food Banks Canada also reported that up to 25 percent of Canadians are living in a state of poverty, while 35 percent of Canadians feel worse off financially.

The reason why Canadians are visiting food banks in record numbers is because of the NDP-Liberal government’s inflationary tax and spending policies that have increased the cost of living for everything. This includes their punitive carbon tax, which has also been placed on grocery items. Instead of providing Canadians with the relief they deserve, the NDP-Liberal government decided to hike the carbon tax by 23 percent this spring as part of their plan to quadruple the tax by 2030.

Now, more than ever, we need a carbon tax election so that Canadians can vote for a Conservative government that will axe the carbon tax on the inputs that are driving up the price of our groceries.

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Statistics Canada confirms we are getting poorer and I question the Liberal government on why they ignoring these important economic indicators. Their data shows that GDP per person has dropped eight out of the last nine quarters. Meanwhile, United States GDP grew by nearly 3 percent last quarter. Even Canada’s standard of living now lags behind Alabama, the fourth poorest American state, according to well known magazine, The Economist. There is only one reason for this: NDP-Liberals are taxing Canadians into the ground with their hikes on the carbon tax, more tax on housing inputs, and the job-killing capital gains tax. Their inflationary spending is also crushing taxpayers as this government will have a nearly $8 billion budget overrun over the projected $40 billion from their own budget

Watch as I question the NDP-Liberal government:

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I spoke in Parliament reflecting on the solemn Christian celebration of All Saints Day on November 1st. Many Canadians will be visiting cemeteries tonight with candles and flowers for tombstones as well as markers to remember family members deceased in years past. It’s a chance to slow down and remember in a distracting digital world that family and our relationships matter most. This year, as in the past, my family will remember my daughter Lucy-Rose who passed in 2018 and join the many families across Canada who continue to grieve for their lost children.

Watch my full remarks on All Saints Day here:

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