Thank you.
It really is an honour to be here. As a teenager, I was fascinated by politics and government. I know that people say it's an honour to be here, but it actually is an honour for me. It's striking. Thank you for having me.
This housing crisis that is obvious to anybody who lives in Canada is a very real thing. It's difficult and it's complex, but in essence, the simple part is that the prices of houses are too high in Canada and rents are becoming unmanageable. As we move in that direction, we must find solutions. The solutions have to be found for the next generations, for the people of the future who want to own homes and are finding it effectively impossible.
For young people, the size of the down payment that they must accumulate and the level of income that they must attain in at least 50% of Canada right now is stratospheric. We have prices that are in excess of $1 million in British Columbia and Ontario. I talk to young people every day on their hope of achieving what's necessary to get to the point of being able to buy a home. It's effectively impossible for the majority of them. They tell me that. They tell me that, in many cases, they've given up hope.
We also have, through these very high house prices, combined with much higher mortgage rates than we've experienced for almost a decade, incredible pressure on rents. In many areas of Canada, this is becoming almost unmanageable. People are confronted with increases in rent, or, if they have to change accommodation, the new rent is just so high that really, in some cases, they can't do it. They have to find other ways, such as moving in with others or getting support from family. There are so many cases that we know about.
Finally, there is the pernicious effect of outside money coming into Canada from other countries. The foreign buyers ban is a great first step, but money comes into Canada in ways that people don't completely understand. If you're using a house as a safety deposit box for money that you brought over from another country, it has a major impact on the marginal price of houses. The person who's using it for storage of his or her money doesn't particularly care what the price is. They just want to move the money. This is one of the reasons I believe we saw the foreign buyers tax come into place in the first place.
Now, as for fixes, there are a few. Let's start with something that's going on in British Columbia right now, which is the banning of short-term rentals. Short-term rentals are pernicious. They are all wrong for our country. It literally doesn't make any sense. Think about what a hotel is. It has a location in great tourist areas and urban centres. It has great advertising capacity. It has a terrific reservation system. Well, that is Airbnb. That's what Airbnb is. It is effectively a hotel. It is effectively an illegal hotel. We have a lot of hotel space in Canada. We don't particularly need any more hotel space.
So why do it? It's profitable. It allows landlords to make money in ways that they couldn't with a long-term tenant. We are depriving long-term tenants of these locations. We are also depriving people who could purchase those properties, because it's a business. It's not a place to live. This is a key area. As I've stated, we should really want to support that ban on short-term rentals throughout Canada.
Now, the other consideration is this approach of increasing the development of purpose-built rentals. The GST waiver was a tremendously positive move. Many provinces will match the PST waiver. This will change the face of purpose-built rentals, but there's a long way to go. I think Ms. Keesmaat will talk about the fact that there are just so many development costs associated with creating these new projects. There are so many loads of taxes and development fees and things that the municipal governments layer on.
These projects could be much, much more feasible if there was some pullback from the development fees, local taxes, red tape and Nimbyism that all prevent multiple dwellings in areas that should be upzoned.
There really is no reason why the provincial mandates to increase zoning in municipal areas to allow for multiple dwellings shouldn't be forcibly endorsed by the federal government.
Thank you.