Axe The Sales Tax on Homes
Ottawa, ON — Common Sense Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today that as Prime Minister he will axe the federal sales tax (or GST) on new homes sold for under $1 million, a tax cut that will spark 30,000 extra homes built every year. Poilievre will also push provinces to remove their sales tax from new home sales, which would save tens of thousands of dollars more for homebuyers.
The move comes after housing costs have doubled in the 9 years of the NDP-Liberal government, rising faster than in any other G7 country. Back in October of 2015, the month before Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, it took only 39 percent of the median pre-tax household income to cover home ownership costs. Now, it takes nearly 60 percent. While it used to be normal for working class youth to buy homes, now eighty-percent of Canadians tell pollsters homeownership is only for the very rich and there are now 1,400 homeless encampments in Ontario alone.
In Ontario and British Columbia, government charges account for more than 30 percent of the cost of a new home. The federal government takes the biggest share. In Ontario, about 39 percent of the total taxes on a new home go to politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa. One such tax is the GST, adding $50,000 in costs to a $1 million home.
Common Sense Conservatives will fund this big homebuyers’ tax cut by eliminating $8 billion of bureaucratic programs that Liberals admit have not built a single home. Also, the tax cut will spark 30,000 extra homes built each year, generating more income for construction workers and businesses, and $2.1 billion of revenue for government.
Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home Canada’s promise: that hard work earns a powerful paycheque that buys affordable food and homes in safe neighbourhoods.