Thursday, September 12, 2019 ~ VICTORIA
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau today announced the federal government’s expansion of a program that helps first time homebuyers get into the market, in particular within high-priced markets like Greater Victoria, Vancouver’s lower mainland, and the Greater Toronto area.
“People are facing these challenges head on,” said Trudeau, referring to these out-of-balance housing markets where prices are up to 60% higher than the national average according to the Liberal party’s information today.
There were several references by Trudeau to the Province of British Columbia’s leadership on the two components of today’s housing support announcement:
- The First-Time HomeBuyers Incentive — which provides Canadians with up to 10% off the purchase price of their first home — now has a home value ceiling of $789,000 in the Greater Victoria market which is up from the earlier $505,000;
- Foreign speculation and vacancy tax of 1% on homes that are owned by non-resident, non-Canadians, as a way to help slow down the speculative impact on housing costs drives up housing costs. Permanent residents, and Canadians living abroad are *not* affected by this tax, it was emphasized by Trudeau today in his speech.
Trudeau looking relaxed in a white shirt with sleeves rolled up (but black tie and suit pants so as not to lose the authoritative edge), held the announcement on a housing construction site in the Royal Oak area of Saanich, within the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding.
It was a relatively cool, grey-sky but somewhat humid day that threatened rain.
Seven Liberal candidates for all the ridings on Vancouver Island stood well behind him in the background: Jamie Hammond (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), Blair Herbert (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford), Ryan Windsor (Saanich-Gulf Islands), Nikki Macdonald (Victoria), Jonah Gowans (Courtenay-Alberni), Peter Schwarzhiff (North Island-Powell River), and Michelle Corfield (Nanaimo-Ladysmith).
While Trudeau commanded the podium on his own for the early morning media event, the entire national campaign entourage plus parents with kids for the photo-op and both national and local media as well as security tallied about 200 people on hand.
Canada’s economy was flat at the end of the Harper term in 2015, said Trudeau. He said that for Conservatives the “cuts and austerity are the answer to everything”. By contrast, he said the Liberals “invest in people and communities”.
“There is more work ahead of us than behind us. We spent the last four years moving forward,” said Trudeau. He cited poverty as down in Canada (900,000 people pulled out of poverty, which includes 300,000 children), and job creation as “way up”. Trudeau reiterated the 2015 slogan in claiming that the Liberals have invested in the middle class and people working hard to join it.
Trudeau said Canadians have a choice in this election, and that by choosing the Liberals they would “keep moving forward and build on the progress that we’ve made or go back to the politics of the Harper years”. And continuing: “Conservatives cut taxes for the wealthy and services for everybody else. But you can’t cut your way to prosperity. We’re investing in families, workers and communities, by having faith in Canadians.”
Trudeau outlined that in the past four years over 100,000 jobs have been created and new health accords have been negotiated with the provinces.
“There’s still lots more work to do,” he said, noting that many younger Canadians still “can’t even imagine buying a home right now,” and that “owning a house should be a realistic life goal”.
Earlier this year, the first new first time homebuyers incentive (10% off purchase price of first home) was introduced, and today’s announcement was about recognizing regional disparities in that model.
Trudeau said that a new liberal government will expand the incentive to give more help to people living in three hottest housing markets. “Canada is not a place for those who wish to speculate in the housing market,” he said, and describing the 1% annual tax on residential properties who are not Canadian and who do not live in Canada as “modest”. That 1% will be levied on top of local taxes already in place to help markets to “stay stable and affordable”.
Political stance. And returning to his strategic focus on positioning the Conservatives as really the only other competition in this election race: “Conservatives talk a big game about making life more affordable, but they voted against the first time homebuyers when they had the chance. The Liberal government will continue to invest in families while finding new innovative solutions to challenge facing Canadians. At the end of the day, politics is about people, it’s about you,” Trudeau said.
“We’ve done a lot these last four years, but the truth is we’re just getting started,” said Trudeau. “Canadians have an important choice to make. Will we go back to the failed policies of the past, or will we continue to move forward. “That’s the choice, it’s that clear, and it’s that important. I’m moving forward to everyone — particularly them,” he said, as he nodded over toward the young children playing and contributing their voices to the background.
Trudeau in taking questions from national media responded on various issues including why he’s not participating in the Macleans leaders debate tonight (5 pm PT); abortion rights in Canada (he emphasized his own and his party’s stand as women having the right to choose which is already the law); continued SNC-Lavalin fallout (he feels he has opened cabinet privilege both amply and appropriately); health issues with vaping / e-cigarettes and would there be a ban (there will be further Health Canada consultations with experts and to determine the right path forward and decisions will be made based on evidence and data); and Quebec’s pending law to ban religious dress or adornment in the workplace (saying that discrimination is not what Canada is about).
Local media questions included even still whether enough is being done about high housing prices (CBC), what the Liberal chances are on Vancouver Island given the current strength of NDP seats and Green expansion expectations (West Shore Voice News), and the environmental impact of increased tanker traffic within the context of climate change (CHEK TV).
Why vote Liberal on Vancouver Island? Trudeau says it’s “an opportunity and choice to be part of a government that’s going to continue to move forward for all Canadians”.
The Liberal government bought a pipeline. “Canadians understand that we need to both grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time. You cannot grow the economy unless you are protecting the environment. We have to move our economy towards greener, toward cleaner. That means using all our resources to invest in that transition … It doesn’t serve anyone to leave tens of millions of dollars on the table because we can’t get our resources to market other than the United States right now.”
He said that “it doesn’t serve anyone to get be putting more oil by rail and tanker traffic when we know that pipelines to well-serviced marine areas are the safest way to transport and to export our natural resources”.
“We know that investing all the profits from the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion into the cleaner energy transition is something that all Canadians understand,” Trudeau said. “Here on Vancouver Island, you’ve demonstrated both an understanding of how important it is to protect natural environment while developing our natural resources responsibility and that is something we’re going to continue to do as a government.”
The speech plus questions from media lasted about 23 minutes, which was livestreamed and available to major TV news outlets.
Trudeau’s campaign team and entourage (including national media) will be hopping across the country today, wrapping up Day 2 of the campaign in Trois-Riverieres in Quebec this evening.
There is a new jet today (for now, without the Trudeau campaign branding wrap), due to an unexpected mishap between the media bus and the new campaign jet yesterday at the Victoria airport — the media bus that carries out of town media to the various destinations in the wake of Justin Trudeau (Liberal Leader and still technically prime minister of the country) had scraped the underside of one of the wings of the plane. Apparently the same sort of bus-to-plane incident happened in 1980 to then-Liberal-leader and Prime Minister seeking re-election Pierre Elliot Trudeau; that year the elder Trudeau returned to office with a majority government.
LINKS: =============
The full announcement and media questions were livestreamed, available as Trudeau Day 2 Victoria on YouTube.