Trudeau takes urgent action to bring down housing costs

Justin Trudeau has come forward with a concrete list of measures to reduce the cost of housing in the country. In his speech at the Liberal Party's national meeting in London, Ontario, the Canadian Prime Minister presented the federal government's action plan.

First, the central government will incentivize the construction of rental homes that Canadians need. This will take the form of eliminating the goods and services tax on the construction of new apartment buildings for renters.

Second, the Premier encouraged provinces that still have their own sales taxes or the regional portion of the harmonized sales tax (HST) on rental housing to join the federal initiative.

Finally, Trudeau demanded from the local governments end exclusionary zoning and encourage building apartments near public transit in order to have their Housing Accelerator Fund applications approved.

It's too early to say definitively how provinces will react to the prime minister's announcement, but at least Ontario officials including the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Provincial Premier have already publicly expressed support for Trudeau's program.

The day before this policy speech about solving the housing crisis, supporting small businesses and helping people hit by high inflation, in the same London the first deal was struck with the Housing Acceleration Fund. As is now obvious, this was only the preamble to a big announcement by the federal government, represented by Justin Trudeau.