CONSERVATIVE PARTY

April 22, 2025 - Costed Platform 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre released his fully costed plan, "Plan for Change." The Conservative platform includes $34 billion in new spending and $75 billion in tax cuts over the next four years. 

More information can be found in the media release and full costed platform. 

April 11, 2025 - Financial Institutions Recognizing Skilled Trades 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced requiring banks to "recognize apprenticeships for Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs). Financial institutions that offer RESPs will be required to recognize all skilled trades and apprenticeship programs as eligible RESP programs, ensuring that all related expenses qualify for Education Assistance Payments" with the intent to enable more skilled trades workers.

The Party also plans to boost funding for the UTIP program to help train 350,000 new workers over five years as carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, and beyond.

More information can be found in the media release.

April 10, 2025 - Cutting Building Taxes by $100,000 Per Home

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced incentivizing "municipalities to cut building taxes, for a total savings of $100,000 on an average home in Canada’s big cities. For every dollar of relief a municipality offers in development charges, a Conservative government will reimburse 50%, up to a maximum of $50,000 in savings for new homebuyers."

Conservatives will also require cities to publicly disclose their development charges and explain how the federal reimbursement will be used "so Canadians can hold municipalities accountable."

More information can be found in the media release.

March 30, 2025 - 'Canada First' Reinvestment Tax Cut

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced a Canada First Reinvestment Tax Cut, so that "any person or business selling an asset will pay no capital gains tax when they reinvest the proceeds in Canada. Companies that reinvest in active Canadian businesses will also defer any capital gains tax. These gains will still be taxed later on when investors cash out or move the money out of Canada. The break will be available on any reinvestments done until the end of 2026."

This tax cut would be available for any capital gains reinvested between July 1, 2025, to December 31, 2026.

More information can be found in the media release.

March 25, 2025 - Eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1.3 million

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to eliminate the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on all new homes sold for under $1.3 million.

More information can be found in the news release.

October 29, 2024 - Eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1 million

On October 29, 2024 Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to eliminate the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on new homes sold for under $1 million if his party wins the next federal election. Poilievre said he would pay for the plan by cutting two government programs — the Housing Accelerator Fund and the Housing Infrastructure Fund. 

More information can be found in the backgrounder document. 

On November 4, 2024 Poilievre followed up his previous announcement on the GST with a letter sent to the Premiers across the country, calling on provincial governments to remove their respective sales tax (where applicable) on homes sold for under $1M. 

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NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY

April 19, 2025 - Costed Platform 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh released his fully costed plan, "Made for People." The NDP platform includes $43.2 billion in new spending. 

More information can be found in the media release and costed platform.

April 8, 2025 - Permanent Ban on Foreign Homebuyers

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pledged to introduce a permanent ban on foreign homebuyers if his party forms government after the next federal election. 

Singh pledged to deliver: 

• A permanent and enforceable ban on foreign homebuyers, with no loopholes;
• A major investment in affordable, non-profit housing;
• And a stronger anti-flipping tax—expanding the current 1-year rule to 5 years.

More information can be found in the media release.

April 7, 2025 - Canadian Homes Transfer and Communities First Fund

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced a plan to replace the Housing Accelerator Fund with a strategy comprised of the Canadian Homes Transfer and the Communities First Fund. 

The Canadian Homes Transfer Fund aims to reward cities that build quickly, allow more townhomes and apartments, and prioritize homes near transit. Measures include: 

• "Require cities to allow more multi-unit homes in all neighbourhoods;
• Require more housing near public transit routes;
• Speed up permits and approvals so homes can get built faster;
• Support good jobs by requiring Project Labour Agreements or Community Benefits Agreements;
• Provide guidelines for using Canadian-made materials like steel, cement, and mass timber;
• Support building pre-fabricated homes to help meet tight timelines.
• Freezing the increase on development charges and working with provinces to halve development charges that hold up construction
• Committing to 20 percent non-market housing in every neighbourhood;"

The Communities First Fund aims to help expand the water, sewage, and infrastructure foundations needed to support new housing through:

• "Freezing development charges and working with cities to cut them in half, lowering construction costs;
• Following national rent control rules;
• Bringing forward a housing security strategy to end encampments and homelessness;
• Implementing a Renters’ Bill of Rights;
• Ending exclusionary zoning that blocks new homes;
• Supporting the construction of pre-fabricated homes to speed up building timelines;
• Requiring cities to allow at least four units on residential lots and more multi-unit homes."

More information can be found in the media release.

April 6, 2025 - National Rent Control

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced a plan to implement national rent control. Other measures include:

• "Ban fixed-term leases, renovictions, demovictions, and other landlord practices aimed at pushing people out of their homes and driving up rents;
• Ban rent price-fixing and collusion by corporate landlords, including the use of shared data platforms and coordinated pricing tools; and
• Recognize the right of tenant unions to negotiate with landlords."

More information can be found in the media release.

March 30, 2025 - Low-Interest Mortgages for First-Time Home Buyers

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced a plan to expand the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) mandate and "un[lock] the financial power of the CMHC to offer low-interest, public-backed mortgages," as well as have the federal government build rent-controlled homes on public land. The media release notes the NDP "understand the need to boost housing supply to help first-time home buyers" and will announce additional measures in the weeks ahead.

More information can be found in the media release.

March 28, 2025 - Bans on Corporate Housing Providers

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced the NDP's plan to:

• "Ban corporations from buying existing affordable rental buildings;
• Cut off handouts – including low-interest federal loans, preferential tax treatment and mortgage loan insurance - for big corporate landlords who gouge their tenants; and
• Boost the Rental Protection Fund – to help non-profits purchase affordable apartments when they come onto the market."

More information can be found in the media release.

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LIBERAL PARTY

April 24, 2025 - Eliminate the GST 

Building on his announcement to eliminate the GST, Prime Minister Carney announced that the Government of Canada will eliminate the "GST on homes under $1 million and reduce the GST on homes between $1 million – $1.5 million."

More information can be found in the media release. 

April 19, 2025 - Costed Platform 

Prime Minister Carney released his fully costed plan, "Canada Strong." The Liberal platform includes $35.2 billion in new spending over the next year, and $129 billion over the next four years. 

More information can be found in the media release and full costed platform. 

April 15, 2025 - Apprenticeship Training for Skilled Trades Workers 

Building on Prime Minister Carney’s commitment to cover up to $8,000 in apprenticeship training costs, he announced a "new benefit to help workers access and afford new skills training in the middle of their careers."

This new benefit will:

• provide up to $15,000 for workers in priority sectors, including manufacturing, health care, construction, A.I. and technology.
• ensure that Canadian workers impacted by tariffs have the necessary tools to pursue good paying jobs and advance their careers in priority sectors. 

More information can be found in the media release. 

April 5, 2025 - Apprenticeship Training for Skilled Trades Workers

Prime Minister Carney announced a plan to cover apprenticeship training costs of up to $8,000 and to create more training opportunities in the skilled trades so that "more Canadian workers can join these professions and secure higher-paying careers."

Other initiatives announced include:

• Increasing access to union-led training initiatives by doubling the funding of the Union Training and Innovation Program from $25 million to $50 million annually;
• Establishing a new $20 million capital funding stream for colleges to support new training spaces for apprenticeships;
• Upholding the Apprenticeship Service program to support employers in hiring new apprentices in Red Seal trades, with up to $10,000 for eligible employers for each new apprentice hired;
• Increasing labour mobility for skilled trades people between provinces and territories through the vital work of breaking down internal trade barriers; and
• Expanding the Labour Mobility Tax Deduction to ensure workers who travel more than 120 km from their home to a job site can deduct more of their expenses, and commit to significantly increasing the per-year tax deduction limit.

More information can be found in the news release.

March 31, 2025 - Housing Plan

Prime Minister Carney announced the Liberal's housing plan, that would aim to "double the pace of construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year". The plan would include:

• The creation of Build Canada Homes (BCH), with the federal government acting as a developer to build affordable housing at scale, including on public lands, accompanied by over $25 billion in financing to innovative prefabricated home builders in Canada (including Canadian technologies and resources like mass timber and softwood lumber), and over $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable home builders.
• Catalyzing private capital and removing "red tape" to lower the cost of homebuilding, through initiatives like:
  • "Cutting municipal development charges in half for multi-unit residential housing while working with provinces and territories to keep municipalities whole;
  • Reintroducing a tax incentive which, when originally introduced in the 1970s, spurred tens of thousands of rental housing across the country;
  • Facilitating the conversion of existing structures into affordable housing units; and,
  • Building on the success of the Housing Accelerator Fund, further reducing housing bureaucracy, zoning restrictions, and other red tape to have builders navigate one housing market, instead of thirteen."

These measures will build on the elimination of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for first-time homebuyers on homes at or under $1 million.

More information can be found in the media release, as well as the full policy document.

March 20, 2025 - Eliminate the GST

Prime Minister Carney announced that the Government of Canada will eliminate the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for first-time homebuyers on homes at or under $1 million. 

More information can be found in the news release.