Evidence of meeting #69 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was financialization.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
We don't have enough time to start another round, but we do have a few moments. Mr. Morrice has asked if he could get a question in. Do we have consent? If we have consent, we have enough time to give a few minutes to Mr. Morrice.
Liberal
Green
Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's very kind.
Thank you to the committee members for their consent.
I'd like to thank Dr. August for joining us again.
I want to ask about the only published brief that's been provided to this committee for this study. It's by a group who call themselves the Canadian rental housing providers for affordable housing. We might think this is a group of non-profits working for the public good, but it's actually a lobby group made up of the five largest real estate investment trusts who profit from the financialization of housing. Unsurprisingly, one of their recommendations is to keep a tax exemption that they currently benefit from.
A report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer with respect to ending this exemption makes it clear that we could raise a minimum of $285 million over the next five years for affordable housing if we did this. It's a recommendation that for some time both ACORN and Dr. August have called for.
Dr. August, perhaps we can start with you. Can you elaborate on how important this change is?
Associate Professor, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, As an Individual
Sure. Thanks for all that background.
I think there's no social justification for providing tax breaks to real estate investment trusts in housing. These firms are making their money by making housing less affordable and affecting security of tenure, things that are running counter to the right to adequate housing. It makes a lot of sense to tax them like other corporations. It makes a lot of sense to use the money that is earned—a substantial figure, as you just mentioned—and put that towards housing-related goals.
Green
Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you so much for that, Dr. August.
Ms. Burkart from ACORN, would you like to add to that?
Leader, ACORN Canada
The best way to stop a corporation is definitely by taxing them, because money is their goal. When you block money, basically that's an inhibitory process for REITs, ensuring that any funding, whether it's through the housing accelerator fund or the national housing strategy, is tied to no displacement for tenants.
We have to ensure that our existing housing stock is protected. I think Steve Pomeroy's statistic was that for every affordable housing unit built, 15 are lost. We can't continue to build housing if we're losing more. The idea that housing has to be maintained should be economically part of building housing. You can't build housing and then not maintain it, especially if you're losing it at a rate faster than you can build it. That's how the housing crisis started.
Green
Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you, Ms. Burkart, for sharing from your lived experience.
Dr. Lewis, would you like to share also?
Assistant Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University, As an Individual
I definitely echo the same sentiments as some of my colleagues joining us in this meeting. Where I think I'm more concerned is with the asset management firms. As much as we talk about real estate investment trusts, as I mentioned last week, real estate investment trusts over the last 27 years in the city of Toronto have accumulated only 7% of all the total units. Asset management firms account for over 40%. I think that should be our priority.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Chair, before we let the witnesses go, I wonder if they could provide the data that they may have available to indicate how pervasive the financialized landlord issue is, whether it be in corporations, in REITs or in asset management companies. Could it be broken down by provinces and cities, if they have that? I think it would be very telling to indicate how pervasive and problematic this situation is.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
I would ask all the witnesses that if they have information that addresses the issue Ms. Kwan put to the committee, provide it to the committee clerk so it will frame part of this particular study.
With that, we have concluded the first hour.
Thank you, witnesses, for coming back again and giving testimony on this important topic.
We will suspend for five minutes while we go in camera to resume consideration of version one of the CMHC report.
Again, thank you, committee members.
[Proceedings continue in camera]