If we were in a situation where homebuilding was in a boom, this would have a substantial net fiscal cost, and we could argue whether or not it's necessary, but right now, we have home starts and home sales falling by 60%-90% in our major metros.
With the reduction in sales and the GST and GBA, that's going to cost the federal government $3 billion annually if these trends continue. We need to look at that. We need to examine both the cost of action, which is about $2 billion, but also the cost of inaction, which is going to be in the billions of dollars as well.
Finally, I would note that we need to hit 500,000 new homes. That is the target that the federal government has set, but if housing starts are falling by 4% a year, which the CMHC forecasted for 2027, we're not going to be able to double housing starts. We need to do what we can to lower the cost of homebuilding to allow us to hit those very ambitious housing start targets.