Finance committee  We don't have statistical analysis, in terms of how big the bump will be. However, we do know there has been an increase in the desire to build purpose-built rental, but that these measures that aren't in place yet are preventing it. The opportunity to move into the rental market

Finance committee  I think that you just expressed exactly the type of messaging we need to get out to all Canadians, especially to young people in schools and parents, in particular, who see university as the only route to success and trades as a secondary option. Obviously, university is a good r

Finance committee  Thank you. With some 21% of skilled workers in residential construction retiring over the next decade, productivity gains need to be an important part of our industry's future. We need to promote young people getting into the skilled trades; we need parity of esteem in Canada fo

Human Resources committee  We know it has had a really significant impact on first-time homebuyers. We know that was the intent. A lot of people have been knocked out of the market. The numbers vary from region to region. Of course it was also put in place not because we're trying to protect affordability

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's the problem for many people.

Human Resources committee  We see that it's often not even the regulations; it's the process. You'll go forward where the plans are all in place and you're having higher density, mixed-income, some support for some sort of assisted dwellings, and then it goes through more of a political process at the muni

Human Resources committee  Right now, the way secondary suites are assessed for GST purposes, it's not just the construction cost; they incorporate the value of the land. A secondary suite is on land that's already owned by somebody, so in the assessment process they'll include the land to create a value f

Human Resources committee  No...GST.

Human Resources committee  The way GST is applied to purpose-built rentals.... In most situations, when businesses are paying GST, it's meant to flow through to the customer, and the business will get its GST refunded through input taxes, but of course there is no GST applied to rental. When you charge GST

Human Resources committee  Yes, of course they always do. Calling it a development charge is a very inconvenient name; that's usually the case at the municipal level. It is of course a tax, and that tax ends up every time in either the purchase price of a home or in the rental price. It has to.

Human Resources committee  We're seeing acts opened to fund more and more, so not only is it going to other places but the development acts, at the provincial level, are being opened so that more and more can be charged to new homebuyers. It's not just our numbers. If you look at the Statistics Canada numb

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I commend the committee for making housing a priority in this study on poverty reduction. As the underlying principle of housing dictates, people are better able to move forward with their lives if they are housed. The CHBA and our 8,500 member companies are the voi

Finance committee  You're absolutely right. We're going to lose 118,000 workers over the next decade in residential construction. Some of them are in apprenticeable trades and some of them are not. A lot of them are just skilled workers, and that's common in every industry. What we need to do is

Finance committee  When you want to talk about simple economics and supply and demand, the reason why low-rise houses, in particular in the GTA and Vancouver, are so expensive is supply and demand. There is the federal, provincial, and municipal action right now to study housing markets. I'm really

Finance committee  The first thing to understand, especially in the GTA and in Vancouver, is the number one thing driving the problem right now is lack of supply. Just before coming over here, Bob and I were looking at the latest stats, and there are 70% fewer low-rise houses on the market in the G