MP Mike Morrice makes proposal to address housing crisis
Posted Apr 11, 2023 08:00:37 AM.
Last Updated Apr 11, 2023 08:06:04 AM.
Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice has made a proposal to the federal government to address the nation-wide housing crisis.
The Green Party MP wants tax breaks to be eliminated for big, corporate investors, saying they should be taxed like any company across the country. The government would use that revenue to invest in affordable housing.
“One of the root causes of the housing crisis that we’re in is the fact that increasingly, we have large, corporate investors who are dominating the market,” he said. “I think we can all agree homes should be, first and foremost, places for people to live and not commodities for large, corporate investors to trade.”
Currently, the tax exemption is on the dollars that flow to unitholders, which is where the majority of funds go in real estate investment.
Morrice’s proposal has been costed out by Parliamentary Budget Office and would generate between $285 million and $670 million over the next five years.
“I’d love to see even more done, but this seems like such a reasonable place to start,” said Morrice.
“We scratched our heads and said, ‘Why isn’t this already done?'”
The idea isn’t new and is based on what multiple nonprofit organizations in Waterloo Region and across Canada have been advocating for.
In the past, Morrice’s proposal has been met with a request for more studies that show the ideas work.
This time, in addition to the studies, the proposal has been costed out and behavioral and sensitivity analyses have been done.