Poilievre releases housing plan he says would 'build homes, not bureaucracy'
CBC
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre released Thursday a housing plan he said would fast-track the construction of new homes in Canada as the country grapples with an acute shortage of affordable places to live.
Poilievre said that after eight years in government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have failed to stimulate the construction of enough homes to meet demand — a situation that has made young people increasingly disillusioned about their financial futures.
The Conservative leader said Trudeau and the federal NDP have plunged the country into "housing hell." He said a Poilievre-led government would try to fix it through a carrot-and-stick approach.
Poilievre said he will table a private member's bill in Parliament on Monday, when the House of Commons returns from its summer break.
While the "Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act" isn't likely to become law, it signals what the Conservative leader wants to do on this file.
The central feature of Poilievre's plan is a policy that ties federal funding to housing starts.
Under his proposal, cities would have to increase the number of homes built by 15 per cent each year — a rate that Poilievre said might alleviate the housing crunch.
Local governments that fail to meet that target would see their federal grants withheld at a commensurate rate, Poilievre said.
Under Poilievre's proposal, a city that increases the number of homes built by only 10 per cent in a given year would see five per cent of its federal funding withheld or clawed back.
If municipalities build more than the 15 per cent target, they would get a "building bonus," he said.
WATCH: Poilievre slams PM on housing, says Trudeau 'funds gatekeepers'
"More homebuilding, more money. Less homebuilding, less money. It will be a highly predictable mathematical formula," Poilievre said.
"What does Justin Trudeau do? He funds the gatekeepers. We don't need to build more bureaucracy."
Poilievre's program is not unlike the government's existing housing accelerator fund — except Ottawa isn't proposing to withhold funds from municipalities that are slow to approve housing.
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