Ontario Liberals say the province’s housing crisis has now become a catastrophe.
They point to 23 percent fewer homes being built than last year.
Housing Critic Adil Shamji says cutting the provincial sales tax on the purchase of homes can reverse the trend.
“This would function just like the federal proposal, but remove the provincial component of HST for all home buyers of new residences, of new primary residences,” says Shamji.
“No HST would be paid on the purchase of new primary residences that are up to a million dollars. And there would be a reduction of the HST for those residences between one and one and a half million dollars.”
Shamji says the removal of the provincial tax could save home buyers up to $80,000 on a home worth a million dollars.
He says it could also result in the immediate increase of 50,000 new housing starts over the next year.
“It will help first-time home buyers get into homes. And it will release existing housing stock by helping seniors downsize,” says Shamji.
“It will deliver the jolt to construction jobs that Ontario needs and that Doug Ford has completely and utterly failed to deliver.”
The federal government has proposed removing the HST on the purchase of new homes for first-time homebuyers.
It has been suggested that homebuyers would save up to $50,000 on their purchase.
Shamji says while there is no single solution to resolving the housing situation, removing the provincial tax is one of the sensible solutions that should be considered.
