Madam Speaker, we just learned that the Minister of Finance will finally present her economic statement on December 16. This will be the first time in the history of our country that the fall economic statement is presented so late. The government dragged its feet because it wants to avoid revealing that this Prime Minister is weak and has lost control of spending, deficits, taxes and the cost of living.
We have one message. We are asking for only one thing in this economic statement. We want the government to stop its inflationary spending that is driving up the cost of living, stop its job-killing tax hikes, stop putting Canadians in debt and stop threatening our social programs by making irresponsible decisions. That is what the Conservatives are asking for.
We rise today to call on the government to eliminate the taxes on houses and condos. The bulk of housing costs for Canadians are not incurred to pay carpenters, materials or land. It is the taxes and red tape from all three levels of government that increase housing costs and make it impossible for young people to purchase a home. That is why common-sense Conservatives will get rid of the GST on new homes and save Quebec families up to $50,000 when they buy a nice home.
This is where we differ from the other parties. They believe that the government should take the money and give it to next level of government, which would give it to yet another level of government, which would, in turn, give it to the bureaucrats, who, in the end, would approve the housing. We feel that there is a faster route between two points, and that is a straight line. That is why we propose putting the money straight into the pockets of homebuyers by lowering their taxes.
Based on the data published by the government about the GST exemption for rental property, we estimate that our proposed measure would help build 30,000 more homes per year. Lower taxes on housing means more home construction. This is the solution that will really deliver results for ordinary Canadians.
The part I am most proud of is that we will do away with the housing accelerator fund, because this program actually slows down the construction of housing. I am very proud to announce that we will eliminate this program and save the $8 billion the Liberal government is planning to pump into it, because this Liberal program will only increase bureaucracy and give more money to greedy politicians. I find it a bit pathetic that the Minister of Housing is calling mayors to tell them he has sent them big cheques. He is telling them they must send a letter asking for his program to remain in place, even though it has slowed down housing construction. Obviously, these politicians are agreeing to this because they want taxpayer money. Politicians want money, but we are not here to work for other politicians. We are here to work for taxpayers and for young people who want to buy a home.
That is why I will be very proud to cut these programs. That is not because these programs do not help. It would be incorrect to say that, because, in fact, the programs actually cause harm. Every time that bureaucracies receive money, the problem is not that they do not help. The problem is that they cause harm. Multi-layered bureaucracies prevent the building of new homes. We know this because, in the past 20 years, municipal revenues have ballooned twice as fast as inflation and population growth combined. If giving more money to municipalities was enough to speed up the construction of affordable homes, we would have the most affordable housing in the world. That is not the solution.
The solution is to get rid of the bureaucracy, cut taxes and leave money in the pockets of the people actually doing the building and buying the homes. That is what we intend to do by cutting the GST on new homes sold, which will help every Canadian family save up to $50,000.
We now learn that the Minister of Finance is finally going to introduce her fall economic update on December 16. She calls it a “fall update”. Santa Claus will already have been preparing to lift off from the North Pole and the snow will have been falling. The leaves have long disappeared into the earth, they have disintegrated and biodegraded because it has been so long since those leaves fell, yet we are waiting until December 16 because she wants to hide that the weak Prime Minister has lost control of deficits, spending and our economy. We will see if she keeps her solemn commitment to a $40-billion deficit or if that promise will also go by the wayside.
That is why we have only one request: stop, just stop, in the name of God. The Liberals can stop the inflationary spending, stop doubling debt and stop driving up taxes on starving Canadians. They can stop everything they are doing until we have a carbon tax election, at which time common-sense Conservatives can axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. Also, they can stop taxing new homes. That is why common-sense Conservatives are proposing to get rid of the GST on new homes to save up to $50,000 on a home for a young family trying to start out. After the Liberal government doubled the cost, it is the least we could do.
Liberals would rather have the money go to bureaucrats. They believe in trickle-down government. They take from the people and give it to one government, which gives it to another government that gives it to a third government that gives it to some bureaucrats. These bureaucrats, apparently, are going to start shuffling papers more quickly to eventually approve some homes. It is not that the housing accelerator program, which I plan, with delight, to get rid of, has not helped; it is that it has made the problem so much worse. When more money is given to bureaucrats, it is not that they do not do helpful things; it is that they stand in the way and cause even more harm.
One developer said just the other day, “Over the last 10 years, the list of application requirements has increased exponentially, and so has the number of bureaucrats looking at your application. And there’s often a pattern of staff waiting till the last day — say on Day 29 of 30 — they write back with a comment (pertaining to) something minor, which triggers another cycle. Imagine three or four such review cycles.”
The more of these bureaucrats, the more layers and the more delay. By getting rid of this program alone and doing nothing else, we will speed up housing construction. Yes, there will be greedy, fat-cat, big-city politicians who will whine and complain because they had expected to have that money to build their empires. My message to them is, “Go on whining and complaining because I am not here to build your empire. I am here to build homes for Canadians.”
That will be the choice in a housing tax election: either the NDP-Liberals, who fund local bureaucracies, or common-sense Conservatives, who axe the tax to build the homes.