Trudeau lays out housing plan in visit to Hamilton

What’s to blame?

If you ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who fielded the question Friday while visiting Hamilton, unaffordable housing in this country is due to a faltering global economy, a once-in-a-century pandemic, soaring inflation, labour shortages and ill-advised decisions from past governments.

“There’s something wrong with the way the (housing) system has evolved,” Trudeau said at Mohawk College with dozens of students in attendance. “The question Canadians should ask themselves is who’s going to fix that system? Who has a plan to fix that system?”

Trudeau claimed it’s his own government, touting the Liberals’ recently announced budget as a path forward to make life more affordable for those at the centre of the spiralling housing crisis: young Canadians.

“(This) crisis is best defined by the fact that these young people, who are working incredibly hard, don’t have the same opportunities that Canadians in their position just 20 years had to be able to buy a home,” Trudeau said, pointing to Mohawk students behind him.

Among the measures the federal government is proposing to bridge that gap include:

• Increasing the withdrawal on the Home Buyers’ Plan — which allows you to take money out of your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) to make a down payments on a home — from $35,000 to $60,000;
• Extending the grace period for RRSP withdrawal payments from two years to up to five;
• Banning foreign purchases of Canadian properties for another two years;
• Allowing rent payment history to count toward credit scores;
• And launching a $50 million enforcement fund to crack down on short-term rental operators who don’t comply with provincial and municipal laws.

“Our fiscal capacity is constrained and that’s why when any level of government comes to the table with assistance … it makes a big difference for us locally,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said of the measures.

Despite its financial limitations, Hamilton has taken notable steps to level the playing field for renters and first-time buyers, with Trudeau praising the city’s anti-“renoviction” bylaw — the first of its kind in Ontario — that deters landlords from bad faith evictions and better protect vulnerable tenants.

The prime minister said his government’s $50-million short-term rental enforcement fund is an extension of Hamilton’s efforts to unlock more homes and get them in the hands of young renters or buyers.

Still, there are some challenges in the housing crisis that fresh cash, faster permitting and less red tape can’t seem to fix.

Consider the redevelopment plan to transform Jamesville into a mixed-income community with 447 units, which has been dealt repeated delays thanks to Canadian National Railway, who believes the project could be a potential conflict with its bayfront shunting yard on Stuart Street.

Trudeau didn’t directly answer how Ottawa is helping the city get its long-awaited project underway, only saying “we’ll be there as a partner in any way we can to help create more housing.”

Horwath, meanwhile, said she’s “not going to sleep until we get some movement from CN” and noted a meeting has been scheduled for next week.

“It is their position and has been for some time that housing near the rail yard is not appropriate, and yet there has been housing on that very lot since the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Horwath said. “In fact, our whole (lower) city is built along two rail lines.”