One-on-one with Canada's housing minister: Lack of affordability a 'crisis' and an 'opportunity'

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CHARLOTTETOWN — As cabinet ministers convene in P.E.I. for a series of meetings largely focused on housing, the federal minister overseeing the file admits a lack of affordability has reached a crisis level for many Canadians.

“We’ve certainly hit a crisis situation in particular for the families who are living with intense housing challenges,” Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser said in an interview on the sidelines of the cabinet retreat on Tuesday.

“The exact nature of how a national crisis impacts you varies immensely between different people in different life situations; but, I don’t think it does any good for somebody in my position who wants to play a leadership role in solving these challenges to ignore the magnitude of it.”

Critics of the government charge it has done exactly that, pointing to comments the prime minister made earlier this month in which he asserted housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility while insisting his government would still act.

Fraser wouldn’t call the comments a mistake when asked, but did acknowledge Canadians want Ottawa to do more.

“If I’ve learned anything over my eight years as a member of parliament when somebody who comes and bears their soul and tells you there’s a problem they’re living with…they don’t want you to say this is somebody else’s problem to solve,” he said.

“So my own point of view is yes, it demands a response from the federal government.”

Housing affordability is a multi-jurisdictional issue but Fraser and his cabinet colleagues heard from experts during this retreat who told them that shouldn’t stop the feds from employing a top-down strategy.

Professor Mike Moffatt, an economist and founding director of the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, is one of those experts.

“There are all kinds of things within federal jurisdiction that they could do today that could get new homes built tomorrow,” Moffatt said in an interview just before presenting to cabinet ministers.

According to Moffatt, that includes tax tweaks to make housing construction more viable, clearing up the apartment application backlog at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, getting involved in long-term, low-interest financing for purpose-built rental projects and more incentives for municipalities to speed construction up and reduce red tape.

Time is not on anyone’s side, though. The CMHC estimates Canada needs nearly six million new homes by 2030, which would require a tripling of the current rate of home building.

Moffat’s message to cabinet? It can be done.

“The politics of this has changed, you can just feel it in the air,” he said.

“I’m hopeful there’s a race to the top between all the different parties to see who can be more credible on housing…I don’t see how you can win the next election if the electorate, particularly anyone under 45, thinks you’re not credible on their number-one issue.”

Cabinet - and more broadly the Liberals - have their work cut out for them. This summer has seen the Conservatives’ lead over Grits in public opinion polls widen - and younger voters are looking elsewhere. An Abacus Data poll surveying Canadians at the end of July put the Liberals 10 points behind the Conservatives among millennial voters.

It’s no coincidence that same poll showed the top issue for Canadians is cost of living.

For his part, Fraser is promising something tangible soon. When asked if a new housing plan would be presented to Canadians in the fall he replied, “You should expect to see something along those lines for me over the next number of months.”