In Edmonton, Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that his government will eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1 million for first-time homebuyers. The prime minister also highlights another announcement he made earlier the day, committing $187 million to help Jasper rebuild after the 2024 wildfires. Responding to questions from reporters, Carney comments on his meeting earlier in the day with Alberta Danielle Smith and is asked about his commitment to building new pipelines to get energy to new markets. The prime minister is also a faces questions on the impact of U.S. tariffs on Alberta’s energy sector. (March 20, 2025)

First time home buyers will not be charged GST (5%) when buying a home, as long as the place they’re buying costs less than $1M. This means that people buying a home for the first time will save up to $50k on their purchase.

Edit: Note, GST is mostly only charged when buying newly built homes, so this won’t have any effect for people buying used homes.

  • sbvEnglish
    2·
    5 hours ago

    If folks suggest these as a stop-gap relief to the current situation and are also gonna build our way out?

    Yes. I think that’s a pretty universal sentiment. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say that we should just do GST rebates - we want construction and immediate relief.

    It’ll probably be a generation or so until the proportion of homes to people gets back to affordable territory. That’s not gonna help me, but hopefully it’ll help my kids.

    In the meantime, we need to adjust other parts of government to get money out of housing: remove capital gains exemptions on housing, implement the anti-money laundering stuff BC has been asking for; do all the zoning crap; train people for the trades; import trades workers (with a path to citizenship); increase density; etc etc etc.

    • ninthant@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      4 hours ago

      You’re correct that no one says that, but that seems to be what’s been happening. So I want the focus to be on the things that are going to deliver the actual results.

      But maybe also I can get my head out of my own ass and not derail your enthusiasm for helping things in the here and now. So yeah, I’m with you. But let’s make those things a comma. I want my leaders at the federal, provincial, and municipal level to start moving the needle today, and stay focused in the months and years to come and ensure that the steps they are taking are the ones that are making meaningful improvements.

      • sbvEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        I’m with you.

        Awesome! Please email your MP and ask them to address the housing crisis. I typically send something along the lines of:

        • task CMHC with building the 3.5 million units necessary to return housing to affordable levels,
        • restoring public housing construction to historic levels (20% of all new builds) with mixed income models to ensure sustainability and maintenance of public housing stock,
        • removing income tax exemptions on the sale of primary residences,
        • increasing the number of people in the trades through training and adjustments to the points system for immigration,
        • increasing tax on foreign owners of Canadian property and implementing a beneficial owner registry for property,
        • strengthening anti-money laundering laws and enforcement.

        I’ve sent similar messages to my MP, MLA, and councillors over the past few years.

        • ninthant@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          2 hours ago

          I have written my MP about this multiple times, signed a counter-petition against a movement to block a high rise in my building, and promoted the development with my neighbours. I’m also meeting my MP tomorrow and I won’t shut up about this, I promise.

          And if they don’t move the needle I’m gonna vote the bastards out and support the next ones instead. I don’t care if it drops my house value — because my kids deserve to be able to afford to live.

          • sbvEnglish
            2·
            2 hours ago

            I haven’t gone as far as meeting with my MP, but I ran a mailer site so people could mail their three levels of rep. It sent a lot of messages and got some feedback from officials, but it’s hard to know if any of them cared.

            Meeting in person sounds more effective.

            I don’t care if it drops my house value — because my kids deserve to be able to afford to live.

            Same. I think there’s a lot of (potential) homeowners who feel that way.

            • ninthant@lemmy.caEnglish
              2·
              57 minutes ago

              Nice! By the way I wasn’t trying to win some dick measuring contest, when I say I’m going to meet him it’s more like I’m volunteering for the election and I’ll get maybe a few minutes at most in. I appreciate your activism, you fucking rock.

              But housing has been my #1 issue and only recently dropped to #2 thanks to our need to defend our country and economy. However using BC lumber to build Canadian homes and apartment buildings instead of shipping it down south ties into that at least tangentially.