Taxes, housing and homelessness were among topics raised in questions to Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies candidates Tuesday in Salmon Arm.
Known for its live music events, for the evening of April 15 there was a change of pace at Song Sparrow Hall when the riding's federal candidates took the stage for an all-candidates forum, hosted by the Salmon Arm chamber.
Event MC Ron Langridge got things rolling by giving the candidates – Mel Arnold, Conservative Party of Canada; Michael Henry, People's Party of Canada; Phaedra Idzan, New Democratic Party; Owen Madden, Green Party of Canada; and Ken Robertson, Liberal Party of Canada – a set time for introductions. Afterwards, candidates were allotted the same time to respond to just over a dozen questions provided from the public to the chamber in advance of the event. Candidates had received the majority of the questions in advance of the event, though a few unexpected "bonus round" questions were saved for the end.
First question was as follows: Taxes and fees make up a considerable portion of housing costs. If elected, would you commit to reducing housing related taxes and fees? If so, which ones?
The first given the opportunity to respond, Arnold, blamed the Liberal federal government for housing that "have doubled under current government because they drove up inflation," and "produced hundreds of millions of extra dollars… devaluing the dollars that we already have."
"The Conservative government, we will remove the GST on new homes under $1.3 million," said Arnold. "That will reduce the cost for a new home by up to $65,000 per home. We will also match the municipalities who reduce their development cost charges, we will match that 50 per cent on the dollar that could potentially reduce costs by another $50,000. That’s $115,000 less per home housing development.
"On top of that, any reductions we can do in taxes, we’ve announced a 15 per cent tax reduction for average Canadians, that will save families thousands per year."
Henry said his party is committed to reducing the financial burden government places on Canadians, especially when it comes to housing.
"We would work to eliminate the GST on new homes, reduce or remove CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) premiums and federal development fees and slash federal income tax to increase buying power…
"We’ll remove federal pressure to densify neighbours of single family homes in order to accommodate mass immigration policies. Housing should be affordable because of free market supply, not inflated by government interference and taxation."
Robertson said a Mark Carney-led government would eliminate the GST for first time home buyers on homes at or under $1 million, "saving Canadians up to $50,000 on the purchase of their first home."
"We’ll invest a billion dollars to power more homes with efficient and affordable electric heating and cooling, and make homes more resilient to extreme weather. We will fund home retrofits, lower utility bills while making it easier for low and middle income households including renters to adopt heat pumps and energy efficient upgrades including insulation upgrades, heat pump installation and window replacements.
"We will lower household risks to flood and wildfire, directly helping Canadian families to protect against floods, wildfires and other extreme weather events… this will help with funding oriented towards adaptation measures…"
Madden responded the Green party is focused on making housing affordable, and preventing speculation within the market, referring to Real Estate Investment Trusts as a source of speculation.
"We want to take out tax benefits for real estate investment trusts and use that monies to provide first-time buyer credits that are larger than what they are now," said Madden. "It must be remembered that most of the taxes involved in housing costs are actually municipal taxes. To reduce those taxes would mean our municipalities can’t afford to rebuild our communities as they are further damaged by climate change such as flooding. So we don't support the reduction of municipal taxes on properties because we believe with the ever increasing price that we pay for climate change, we need our municipalities to be able to rebuild our communities."
Idzan recognized housing as being out of reach "for too many people all over this riding, whether it’s families in Salmon Arm, workers in Sicamous or retirees in Eagle Bay."
"People are being priced out while wealthy investors and corporate landlords rake in profit," said Idzan. "The NDP will remove GST from essentials like home heating, construction materials for affordable homes and utility bills to reduce costs for everyday people. Not speculators. We'll target our tax relief to people who need it most and stop tax breaks for billionaire landlords. Let’s be clear, the Liberals let this crisis explode, and the Conservatives are proposing cuts that will make it even worse. I’ll fight to build more affordable housing and renovictions and ensure families in our region can afford a place to call home."
Another question to the candidates: What concrete actions will your party take to end chronic homelessness and increase supply of affordable housing in Canada?
Idzan pointed out the growing issue didn't happen overnight.
"It’s the result of decades of under investment and policies that favour big developers," said Idzan. "The NDP has a plan to build hundreds of thousands of affordable, rent geared to income and co-op homes. We’ll give non-profits the tools to buy and preserve existing rental stock and will launch a federal strategy to prevent homelessness with stable operating funds for shelters and transitional housing
"This isn’t about handouts; it’s about ensuring no one is left behind and everyone has what they need of a home."
Arnold identified homelessness as one of the top priorities among residents in the riding. He pointed out a portion of homelessness is a result of mental health or addictions issues, and said his party will invest in 5,000 recovery and treatment beds across the country, "so that we can get those loved ones who are someone’s family member off of the drugs, recovered and safely back home again."
"That’s just one piece of dealing with the homeless issue," said Arnold. "The other piece is we will build more homes. We will create trades positions through the apprenticeship program by sponsoring up to $4,000 for apprentices to learn the trades, a program that was recently cut by the current Liberal government. We have to build more homes, we have to incentivize builders to build homes. If you take a way any incentive to be a landlord, as we’ve seen over the past nine years, landlords aren’t going to build rental homes to rent out."
Madden said the Green Party wants one-third of Canadians who earn $40,000 or less to have no income tax, and "that releases more funds to be able to afford a person’s rent."
"The second plan is to provide rent support for low-income Canadians," said Madden. "And the third is to build affordable homes, but make sure they stay affordable. How do you do that? You put a covenant on the land title that pegs the cost of that to about 30 per cent of your average income in Canada and what happens is affordable homes don’t stay affordable because they’ve fallen into the hands of speculators and if you can keep speculators out of the housing industry we’ll have more affordable homes."
Robertson said a Mark Carney-led government will double the pace of construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year. with a housing plan that will get the federal government back in the business of home building.
"By building affordable housing at scale, including on public lands, providing over $25 billion in financing for innovation to pre-fab homebuilders in Canada, including those using Canadian technology and resources… to build faster, smarter, more affordable and more sustainable, and provide $10 million in low-cost financing and capital to affordable homebuilders. We need to understand as a community that we also have to work with those municipalities as well because they’re going to be hooking them to… utilities we have to make sure those reductions in red tape… so that we know that they will be ready for hook up because at the same time, you can build homes, but you need to have a plan. The Liberal party does."
Henry said his party believes the best way to end chronic homelessness is to address the root cause and unleash the housing market, not expand government dependency.
"We would remove restrictive zoning and federal red tape that blocks housing development, eliminate the GST on new construction to lower costs," said Henry. "Stop funding programs that trap people and dependents and instead support treatment based models for addiction and mental health. We would respect property rights and empower local solutions, not one size fits all federal programs. Affordable housing comes from more supply, lower taxes, fewer barriers, not bigger bureaucracy."
Other questions asked of the candidates touched on topics of reducing accidents on stretches of Highway 1 in federal parks; plans to address high crime rates and the catch and release, shoplifting and property destruction involving local businesses; protection fresh water bodies from invasive species; plans for the carbon tax; the impact of federal immigration policy on post-secondary schools; protecting temporary foreign workers; pensions; and firearm bans. To see and hear the candidates' responses, the Salmon Arm chamber has shared a video recording of the forum on YouTube.
