We need the courage – and meaningful action – to build a Canada without poverty, where all Canadians can count on quality public services and community supports to help them lead dignified lives. A core component of our approach is fully implementing the right to housing, and working toward the goal of ending homelessness in Canada within a decade. In a country as wealthy as Canada, there is no excuse to leave any Canadian living in poverty or without a safe roof over their head.

Our affordable housing strategy will include measures to support Canadians at risk of becoming homeless, taking the lead from communities about local needs and adopting a “housing first” approach. To help people find an affordable home in the long term, we will support the creation of more social housing and other affordable options. To deliver help to the most vulnerable right away, we’ll also work with the provinces and municipalities to fast-track the purchase, lease and conversion of hotels and motels for emergency housing relief until more permanent, community-based solutions are available.

Poor health and poverty are linked, and a national pharmacare program will mean that all Canadians can access the prescription medicine they need, regardless of their income or address. Better access to mental health and addictions support will also form a key part of our approach to tackling poverty.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that it is possible for the government to step up and provide basic income to Canadians in difficult circumstances, and that this support can be transformational. That’s why New Democrats will begin work to expand income security programs, beginning with seniors and people living with disabilities, to build towards a future where all individuals residing in Canada have access to a guaranteed livable basic income.

We also know that developing a national, public, universal child care program is critical for lifting women and their families out of poverty, and an important way to give all kids a good start in early learning.

Finally, making sure that all Canadians can access healthy, affordable food is a cornerstone of our Canadian food strategy. A national school nutrition program will make sure that no child enters their classroom hungry. Children should always have access to healthy food – and the ability to concentrate on learning. In addition, New Democrats will ensure that a reformed Nutrition North program is able to better respond to the needs of Northern families, to put an end to chronic food insecurity in the North.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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● Support existing youth shelters and other infrastructure through federal grants.

● Invest in the creation of new youth shelters in urban and small urban centers across the country which would work on a needs-driven and community-centric approach.

● Remove shelter maximum stays for youth.

● Provide on-site and remote access guidance counselling and therapy for youth suffering from homelessness.

● Provide optional relocation services for rural youth suffering from homelessness to ensure that they have access to youth shelters and other infrastructure.

● Support and invest in the co-operative model for youth housing.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

1. Provide expanded mental health services for the homeless community.

● Increased access to high-quality mental health services would recognize the intersections between those experiencing homelessness and those experiencing mental health issues.

2. Implement programs that direct funds to municipalities providing support for people in the homeless community who use drugs.

● Support Housing First initiatives and other successful models of improving health outcomes.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Appoint a new Federal Housing Advocate within the first 100-days of a new mandate to ensure the federal government's work toward eliminating chronic homelessness, as well as other housing commitments, are fulfilled.

Move forward with our plan to invest in Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy to support communities across the country.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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To address homelessness, we will:

• Re-implement the Housing First approach, which has been watered down by the current federal government, to aid in the fight against Canada’s addictions crisis.

• Revise the federal government’s substance abuse policy framework to make recovery its overarching goal.

• Invest $325 million over the next three years to create 1,000 residential drug treatment beds and build 50 recovery community centres across the country.

• Support innovative approaches to address the crises of mental health challenges and addiction, such as land-based treatment programs developed and managed by Indigenous communities as part of a plan to enhance the delivery of culturally appropriate addictions treatment and prevention services in First Nations communities with high needs.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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A Green government will provide a retroactive residential arrears assistance program to protect Canadians at risk of eviction or of being driven into homelessness due to accumulated rent arrears, as recommended by the National Right to Housing Network (NRHN) and the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA).

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

● Raise the “empty home” tax for foreign and corporate residential property owners who leave buildings and units vacant.

● Assess the role of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Canada’s housing market.

● Close tax haven loopholes that allow foreign investors to hide the names of beneficial owners of properties in Canada.

● Crack down on money laundering in Canadian real estate.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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That’s why a New Democrat government will create at least 500,000 units of quality, affordable housing in the next ten years, with half of that done within five years. This will be achieved with the right mix of effective measures that work in partnership with provinces and municipalities, build capacity for social, community, and affordable housing providers, to provide rental support for co-ops, and meet environmental energy efficiency goals. This ambitious plan will create thousands of jobs in communities all across the country, jump-starting the economic recovery, and helping Canadians get the affordable housing they need.

In order to kick-start the construction of co- ops, social and non-profit housing and break the logjam that has prevented these groups from accessing housing funding, we will set up dedicated fast-start funds to streamline the application process and help communities get the expertise and assistance they need to get projects off the ground now, not years from now. We’ll mobilize federal resources and lands for these projects, turning unused and under-used properties into vibrant new communities.

A New Democrat government will also spur the construction of affordable homes by waiving the federal portion of the GST/HST on the construction of new affordable rental units – a simple change that will help get new units built faster and keep them affordable for the long term.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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● Protect the existing stock of affordable housing by funding the purchase of buildings by non-profit and cooperative affordable housing organizations.

● Expand the Rapid Housing Initiative to bring new affordable and supportive housing onstream without delay. With this expansion, more quality projects with funding and agreements already in place can quickly become affordable or supportive housing.

● Invest in construction and operation of 50,000 supportive housing units over 10 years.

● Build and acquire a minimum of 300,000 units of deeply affordable non-market, co-op and non-profit housing over a decade.

● Create a Canada Co-op Housing Strategy and update the mechanisms for financing co-op housing, in partnership with CMHC, co-op societies, credit unions and other lenders.

● Require covenants to ensure that subsidized construction remains affordable over the long term

● Restore quality, energy efficient housing for seniors, people with special needs and low-income families, by providing financing to non-profit housing organizations, cooperatives, and social housing to build and restore quality and affordable housing.

● Implement integrated housing, so that everyone can afford to live in the communities in which they work and under quality conditions. Restore tax incentives for building purpose-built rental housing, and provide tax credits for gifts of lands, or of land and buildings, to community land trusts to provide affordable housing.

● Remove the “deemed” GST whenever a developer with empty condo units places them on the market as rentals.

● Re-focus the core mandate of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on supporting the development of affordable, non-market and cooperative housing, as opposed to its current priority of supporting Canadian lenders to de-risk investment in housing ownership. With many housing markets demonstrably overvalued, and home ownership rates among the highest in the world, individual home ownership should not be the preoccupation of a public service housing agency and a national housing strategy.

● Appoint a Minister of Housing to meet the needs of affordable housing that are unique to each province, oversee its implementation in collaboration with provincial ministers, and build on other aspects of the housing and homelessness crisis in Canada to tackle these issues.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Our plan will build or revitalize an additional 250,000 homes over 4 years. On top of the 285,000 homes currently being built each year, this will mean nearly 1.4 million homes will be built, preserved, or revitalized by 2025-26 under a re-elected Liberal government.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Invest $4 billion in a new Housing Accelerator Fund which will grow the annual housing supply in the country’s largest cities every year, creating a target of 100,000 new middle class homes by 2024-25. This application-based fund will offer support to municipalities that: grow housing supply faster than their historical average; increase densification; speed-up approval times; tackle NIMBYism and establish inclusionary zoning bylaws; and encourage public transit-oriented development. This fund will support a wide range of eligible municipal investments, including red tape reduction efforts, and reward cities and communities that build more homes, faster.

Help speed up the time it takes to build more homes by investing in e-permitting technology and help communities streamline the planning process.

Work with municipalities to identify vacant or underused property that should be converted to housing on the principle of use it or lose it.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Permanently increase funding to the National Housing Co-investment fund by a total of $2.7 billion over 4 years, more than double its current allocation.

These extra funds will be dedicated to helping affordable housing providers acquire land and buildings to build and preserve more units, extending the model of co-operative housing to new communities, accelerating critical repairs so that housing supply remains affordable and is not lost, and developing projects for vulnerable groups, such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Double our existing Budget 2021 commitment to $600 million to support the conversion of empty office and retail space into market-based housing. We’ll convert space in the federal portfolio, and commercial buildings.

Work with municipalities to create a fast-track system for permits to allow faster conversion of existing buildings, helping maintain the vibrancy of urban communities.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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• Leverage federal infrastructure investments to increase housing supply. We will:

° Build public transit infrastructure that connects homes and jobs by bringing public transit to where people are buying homes; and

° Require municipalities receiving federal funding for public transit to increase density near the funded transit;

• Review the extensive real estate portfolio of the federal government – the largest property owner in the country with over 37,000 buildings – and release at least 15% for housing while improving the Federal Lands Initiative;

• Incent developers to build the housing Canadians both want and need, by:

° Encouraging Canadians to invest in rental housing by extending the ability to defer capital gains tax when selling a rental property and reinvesting in rental housing, something that is currently excluded; and

° Exploring converting unneeded office space to housing.

• Continue the Conservative commitment to Reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples by enacting a “For Indigenous, By Indigenous” strategy – long called for by Indigenous housing advocates, who have been ignored by this Liberal government;

° Canada’s Conservatives are committed to putting a stop to federal paternalism and instead partnering with Indigenous communities and empowering Indigenous Peoples with the autonomy to meet their own housing needs.

• Enhance the viability of using Community Land Trusts for affordable housing by creating an incentive for corporations and private landowners to donate property to Land Trusts for the development of affordable housing.

° The incentive will mirror that which exists for donating land to ecological reserves.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Establish the Canada Financial Crimes Agency as Canada’s first ever, national law enforcement agency solely dedicated to investigating and combatting all forms of major financial crime.

Increase the power of federal regulators to respond to housing price fluctuations and ensure a more stable Canadian housing market.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Establish Canada’s first ever, nation-wide agency whose sole purpose is to investigate these highly complex crimes and enforce federal law in this area. Coupled with an investment of $200 million over the next four years, and new federal powers, this agency will bring together, under one roof, existing law enforcement resources of the RCMP, the intelligence capabilities of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), and expertise of the Canada Revenue Agency.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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• Implement comprehensive changes to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, and give FINTRAC, law enforcement, and prosecutors the tools necessary to identify, halt, and prosecute money-laundering in Canadian real estate markets

• Establish a federal Beneficial Ownership Registry for residential property.

• Closely examine the findings and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia, which is doing important work, and quickly implement recommendations at the federal level.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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While making affordable rental housing more available is critical, New Democrats believe that the dream of homeownership shouldn’t be forever out of reach for Canadian families. That’s why we will re-introduce 30-year terms to CMHC insured mortgages on entry-level homes for first time home buyers. This will allow for smaller monthly payments, freeing up funds to help make ends meet for young families. We’ll also give people a hand with closing costs by doubling the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit to $1,500.

For Canadians who are open to innovative paths to home ownership, a New Democrat government will provide resources to facilitate co-housing, such as model co-ownership agreements and connections to local resources, and ease access to financing by offering CMHC-backed co-ownership mortgages.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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Allow you to choose between the current shared-equity approach or a loan that is repayable only at the time of sale.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Reduce the price charged by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation on mortgage insurance by 25%. For a typical homebuyer, this will save $6,100.

Increase the insured mortgage cut-off from $1 million to $1.25 million, and index this to inflation, to better reflect today's home prices.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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Encourage a new market in seven- to ten-year mortgages to provide stability both for first-time home buyers and lenders, opening another secure path to homeownership for Canadians, and reducing the need for mortgage stress tests.

Remove the requirement to conduct a stress test when a homeowner renews a mortgage with another lender instead of only when staying with their current lender, as is the case today. This will increase competition and help homeowners access more affordable options.

Increase the limit on eligibility for mortgage insurance and index it to home price inflation, allowing those in high-priced real estate markets with less than a 20% down-payment an opportunity at home-ownership.

Fix the mortgage stress test to stop discriminating against small business owners, contractors and other non-permanent employees including casual workers.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Create a national Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights so that the process of buying a home is fair, open, and transparent.

Convene federal and provincial regulators to develop a national action plan to increase consumer protection and transparency in real estate transactions.

The Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights will:

• Ban blind bidding, which prevents bidders from knowing the bids of other prospective buyers, and ultimately drives up home prices.

• Establish a legal right to a home inspection to make sure that buyers have the peace of mind that their investment is sound.

• Ensure total transparency on the history of recent house sale prices on title searches.

• Require real-estate agents to disclose when they are involved in both sides of a potential sale to all participants in a transaction.

• Move forward with a publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry.

• Ensure banks and lenders offer mortgage deferrals for up to 6 months in the event of job loss or other major life event.

• Require mortgage lenders act in your best interest so that you are fully informed of the full range of choices at your disposal, including the First Time Home Buyer Incentive.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Stop “renovictions” by deterring unfair rent increases that fall outside of a normal change in rent.

Require landlords to disclose, on their tax filing, the rent they receive pre- and post-renovation, and implement a proportional surtax if the increase in rent is excessive.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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