Trudeau’s Strong Opponent Poilievre Debunks Him With Facts on Housing Crisis

Hank BerrienJune 5, 2024

Canadian Conservative⁣ Party leader Pierre Poilievre, ⁣a prominent adversary of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, criticized Trudeau’s approach to the housing crisis. Poilievre highlighted‌ discrepancies ‌in housing promises, emphasizing the need⁣ for increased homebuilding to meet targets. He pointed out‍ inefficiencies in government spending on housing, advocating for streamlined⁢ processes to facilitate ⁤affordable housing‌ construction.

Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arch-foe, gave his usual articulate common-sense answer and cogent criticism of Trudeau when a questioner asked him about the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation saying the country needs 5.8 million homes to address its housing crisis.

The questioner said Trudeau’s Liberal Party has claimed that it already has that in the budget and that Poilievre disagreed.

“I don’t disagree; the math disagrees,” Poilievre stated bluntly. “They promised they’re going to double homebuilding. Their own housing agency said since they made that promise, homebuilding has gone down and that it will go down next year and the year after that. Look at my exchange with Trudeau in the House of Commons last week. To get to 3.9 million — forget to 5.9 million — to get to 3.9 million new homes by the scheduled deadline of 2031 that Trudeau promised, he needs to build 550,000 homes a year.”

“I asked him six times in the House of Commons, ‘Are we going to build 550,000 homes this year?’” Poilievre recalled. “He wouldn’t answer. Well, the truth is, he’s on track right now to building about 200,000 homes, not even half of what he’s promised. This is not a matter of me disagreeing; it’s a mathematical fact. He’s not delivering. It’s a mathematical fact that nine years ago when I was Housing Minister, the average rent for a one-bedroom was $973. Now it’s $2,000. These are the facts.”

“Has he spent a lot of money on housing programs? Yes,” Poilievre acknowledged, but pointed out, “He spent $89 billion on housing affordability and the result is that housing costs have doubled. The problem is he’s putting the money into bureaucracy. Government bureaucrats don’t build homes; private sector builders do. Government bureaucrats are in the way. So we need to get the government bureaucracy out of the way and deliver fast, affordable permits to build the homes.”

He got down to bare facts: “One-third of the cost of every newly-built home in Ontario is government permits and taxes. One-third. That’s more than we spend on the labor to build the home. So we’re spending more on the bureaucrats, who don’t build anything, than we do on the carpenters, framers, plumbers, and electricians who build. Isn’t that insane?”

“Like when you buy a house, do you not find it incredible — you have this beautiful house and you say, ‘well, where did the money [go]?’” he said. “I’m buying the house, now say it’s a million dollars. What does the million dollars go to? You know, you break it down: lumber, materials. You think: More money goes to people sitting in government offices than goes to the people swinging the hammers, fitting the pipes, framing the lumber. It doesn’t make sense.”

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“We need to cut the bureaucracy,” he declared. “And that’s why my common sense plan will require cities [to] free up land, speed up permits, cut development charges and fees, as a condition of getting federal funds. If they don’t hit my targets, they won’t get their money, and they’ll be less of those bureaucrats in those corner offices. So, if they beat the target, they’ll get more money. We’re going to pay our municipalities the way we pay realtors and builders: for the number of homes.”