In mandate letters to his cabinet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provides directives for 2022.

Trudeau asked for Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen to develop a Fairness in Real Estate Action Plan with measures to:

• create a fund to develop and rent-to-own projects so renters can become home owners;
• invest in a new Housing Accelerator Fund for municipalities to increase housing supply through inclusionary zoning, densification, reductions in approval timelines, and rapid development of vacant or underused lands;
• increase protection/transparency in real estate transactions, including a ban on blind bidding; and
• implement a temporary ban on foreign buyers of non-recreational residential property.

Other priorities for the housing minister include:

Retrofits

• Expand eligibility requirements for the deep home retrofit loan program to include more climate resilience measures for home owners and multi-unit residential buildings.

Investments

• Develop policies to curb excessive profits in investment properties while protecting small independent landlords.
• Review the down payment requirements for investment properties.

Landlords

• Amending the Income Tax Act to require landlords to disclose the rent they receive pre/post-renovation and to pay a proportional surtax if the increase in rent is excessive.

Converting empty office space to housing

• Support converting empty office and retail space in the federal portfolio and in commercial buildings into market-based housing.
• Work with municipalities to support a fast-track permitting system for conversions.

Co-operative housing

• Increase funding to the National Housing Co-Investment Fund to help affordable housing providers acquire land and buildings to build and preserve more units, bring co-operative housing to new communities, and accelerate repairs and develop projects.

Read the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to Hon. Ahmed Hussen

Top housing priorities for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland include:

Taxation

• Implement an anti-flipping tax on residential properties.
• Implement a tax on non-resident, non-Canadian owners of vacant, underused housing, and work to include foreign-owned vacant land within large urban areas.
• Work with financial institutions to create a tax-free First Home Savings Account.
• Support a review of, and reforms to, the tax treatment of real estate investment trusts and develop policies to curb excessive profits while protecting small, independent landlords.

Tax credits

• Introduce legislation to double the Home Accessibility tax credit.
• Establish a new Multigenerational Home Renovation tax credit.
• Double the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit.
• Implement a new 15 per cent tax credit (maximum value up to $500) to help cover the cost of appliance repairs to extend the life of home appliances.

Mortgages

• As an option to the current shared-equity mortgage, develop with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) a loan program, repayable only at the time of sale.
• Ensure CMHC undertakes a review of its insurance policies to assess whether such policies are appropriately supportive of CMHC’s aspiration that, by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home that they can afford and that meets their needs.

Read the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to Finance Minister Hon. Chrystia Freeland.

Read all of the mandate letters.