In reaction to the government’s announcement on housing on Friday, NDP critic for Housing Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie) issued the following statement:
“Canadians are frustrated. They’re facing sky-high grocery prices and rent. They’re seeing rich CEOs get richer off their backs while they scrimp and save. People can’t seem to get ahead.
Justin Trudeau had eight years to fix the housing crisis to ensure families can find a home they can afford in the communities they love. But he disappointed Canadians by delaying measures to keep housing affordable. Under the out-of-touch Liberals, rent doubled and for every affordable home built, we lost 11. A recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer revealed that Trudeau’s housing plan is expected to leave Canadians short 1.2 million homes by 2030. Canadians can’t trust the Liberals to fix the problem they created.
And Pierre Poilievre won’t fix the problem. He will cut funding for affordable housing to protect the profits of his big-money developer donors that attend and host his fundraisers in multimillion-dollar mansions. Poilievre caters to corporate Canada, not working families. When he was in government, Conservatives gave massive tax giveaways to large corporations to the tune of $60 billion—giveaways maintained by the Liberals until today. This money could have been invested in building social and affordable homes that people desperately need today. But instead, the Conservatives and Liberals chose to pad the pockets of wealthy CEOs.
New Democrats believe we need to reverse these big tax giveaways to wealthy corporations and use public money and public land to build homes people can afford. We will continue to fight to make Ottawa work for you and your family, not the rich and powerful.”