Housing the Nation: What Canada’s Political Parties Must Consider in Their Election Platforms
Canada appears to be on the brink of a federal election, with party leaders actively touring the country and releasing new policy announcements. With housing concerns front and center, this election presents a critical opportunity for Canadians to assess how each party intends to address the growing affordability crisis.
While housing approvals and zoning largely fall under provincial and municipal jurisdiction, the federal government does have levers to influence outcomes through funding, tax policy, and regulatory frameworks. In our view, any effective housing policy will require solutions that prioritize supply, streamline approvals, and foster affordability for renters and homebuyers alike.
This post outlines the major party platforms, examines federal initiatives that are working (and those that aren’t), and proposes key reforms that could help Canada make meaningful progress in resolving its housing challenges.
Where the Parties Stand:
Conservative Party: "Building Homes, Not Bureaucracy"
Reducing Bureaucratic Barriers: The Conservatives propose tying federal infrastructure funding to housing construction targets, incentivizing municipalities to streamline their permitting processes.
Tax Incentives: They have pledged to eliminate the GST on all new home construction to significantly reduce costs and encourage developers to build faster. However, without complementary reforms at the municipal level, some worry this incentive may fall flat as developers face approval delays and rising material costs.
Monetary Policy Adjustments: The Conservatives have suggested measures to control inflation, arguing that stabilizing mortgage rates is critical to improving affordability.
One Ontario's Perspective: These proposals align with the need to accelerate development approvals, but their success relies on municipalities adopting digital permitting systems to ensure expedited approvals result in faster housing construction.
Liberal Party: "A Home. For Everyone."
The Liberal Party’s housing platform includes a mix of tax relief, renter protections, and construction incentives:
Tax Incentives for Homeownership: The Liberals have announced the elimination of the GST for first-time homebuyers purchasing homes priced at or below $1 million, potentially saving buyers up to $50,000 on their home purchases. They also propose a tax-free First Home Savings Account (up to $40,000 for Canadians under 40), enhanced First-Time Home Buyer Incentive measures to lower mortgage costs, and a $1 billion commitment to rent-to-own projects. Unfortunately, given rising costs of living and stagnant wages, it’s unclear how many young Canadians will realistically be able to save enough to benefit from these measures.
Build More Homes: The Liberals aim to build, preserve, or repair 1.4 million homes over four years. The Housing Accelerator Fund, still a key part of their platform, aims to encourage municipalities to speed up approvals—although its impact so far has been limited and criticized as bureaucratic in nature.
Protect Buyers’ Rights: The proposed Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights would ban blind bidding, introduce price transparency, and enforce an anti-flipping tax on homes sold within 12 months. Additionally, the Liberals plan a two-year ban on foreign homeownership to prevent speculative demand from inflating prices. However, without efforts to increase meaningful supply, these protections may do little to improve affordability.
One Ontario's Perspective: While the focus on accelerating approvals through funding incentives is positive, these measures will only be effective if municipalities adopt digital permitting systems to support faster decision-making.
NDP: Focused on Affordability and Government Intervention
The NDP’s housing plan emphasizes direct government intervention:
Affordable Housing Construction: They commit to building over 500,000 units of affordable housing within the next decade, focusing on co-op and non-profit developments to ensure long-term affordability. However, given past delays in government-built projects, the ambitious nature of this promise has raised concerns about feasibility and timelines.
Rental Support: The NDP proposes immediate assistance to renters through subsidies and regulations to prevent excessive rent increases. Critics argue that such measures may provide short-term relief but risk discouraging new rental housing development.
Speculation and Vacancy Taxes: Their plan includes targeted taxes on property speculators and vacant property owners to reduce market manipulation and free up existing housing stock. While this may improve affordability in select areas, its overall impact is debated, especially in markets driven by broader supply issues.
One Ontario's Perspective: The NDP’s ambitious goals are admirable, but their success will hinge on ensuring development projects can move forward efficiently. Coordinated digital workflows between developers, municipalities, and non-profits will be key to meeting these targets.
What’s Working – and What Isn’t – at the Federal Level
Programs Showing Promise:
National Housing Strategy (NHS): The NHS is a $82 billion, 10-year plan designed to improve housing affordability across Canada. It includes programs like the Housing Accelerator Fund to encourage faster municipal approvals, the National Housing Co-Investment Fund for affordable housing development, and the Housing Supply Challenge, which funds innovative solutions to address housing supply gaps. While some of these initiatives have shown promise, the final assessment on overall success is still to be determined. Our partners at AECO Innovation Lab were funded by the Housing Supply Challenge, which led to the development of One Ontario, LandLogic, and 3D Remote Building Inspections (3DRBi). As a result, we have a soft spot for this fund and may be a bit biased when recognizing its potential for meaningful innovation in the housing sector.
Public Lands for Homes Plan: Designed to unlock surplus government land for housing development, this plan has potential. However, delays, bureaucratic challenges, and slow adoption by municipalities have hindered progress. Without clearer timelines and stronger coordination with municipal authorities, the intended impact remains uncertain. Opportunities may exist in creating a more streamlined land transfer process to accelerate development.
Programs Falling Short:
Reaching Home Program: Despite good intentions, this program struggles to deliver measurable reductions in homelessness, as funding often fails to translate into completed projects.
Federal Lands Initiative: Although promising in theory, delays and bureaucratic barriers have resulted in few projects breaking ground.
Key Policy Recommendations for Federal Leadership
Drive Faster Approvals by Incentivizing Municipal Reform
Federal funding for infrastructure should be tied to municipalities adopting digital permitting systems that improve transparency and reduce delays.
Offer grants to municipalities that demonstrate improved approval timelines and housing completion rates.
Support Modular and Prefabricated Housing Innovation
Incentivize factories producing modular homes through tax credits or low-interest loans.
Establish national standards for modular construction to fast-track approvals and improve integration with existing building codes.
Introduce a Land Value Tax (LVT) to Encourage Development
A federal incentive model could reward municipalities that implement LVT policies to discourage land speculation.
LVT revenue could be reinvested into infrastructure or affordable housing initiatives.
Create Targeted Funding for Small and Mid-Sized Developers
Smaller developers are crucial to unlocking infill and multiplex housing but face disproportionate challenges accessing capital.
Federal loan guarantees, flexible financing options, or grant programs could help smaller builders compete with large-scale developers.
Expand Federal Land for Affordable Housing Development
Identify and repurpose underused federal lands for residential projects, particularly in high-demand urban centers.
Introduce public-private partnerships to streamline development on these sites, reducing costs and improving timelines.
Strengthen National Data Sharing and Collaboration
A centralized federal data portal could unify key housing data—zoning insights, environmental risks, and infrastructure capacity—helping developers make informed decisions faster.
One Ontario, powered by LandLogic, could be key to normalizing data for cross-jurisdictional analysis, supporting better decision-making and improved housing outcomes.
Conclusion: A Coordinated Approach for Meaningful Progress
While federal action alone cannot solve the housing crisis, strategic reforms can improve conditions across the country. From an affordability perspective, removing GST on new builds is a no-brainer, but there are other excellent opportunities that could provide significant impact including taking a federal approach to centralize development approvals, as has been effective in other leading countries, encouraging modular housing, supporting small developers, and improving data clarity. The upcoming election provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the next federal government to change the narrative and really unlock the housing supply Canadians urgently need.
One Ontario is committed to supporting these efforts by simplifying data, streamlining approvals, and working with stakeholders to accelerate housing delivery. Regardless of which party forms the next government, these reforms will be crucial to achieving meaningful progress.
For more information:
Saman Davari
BIM Manager
Saman.davari@oneontario.ca