Justin Trudeau’s lofty commitment in the area of housing have been no more than empty words, thereby leaving Canadians disillusioned as they confront the reality of spiraling costs of accommodation. Despite his strong assertions however, there are many instances where the prime minister has failed to keep his promises, which makes it hard to trust him on his new great plan.
In a bid to win votes, Trudeau has released another housing plan that pledges 3.87 million homes by 2031. The absurdity of this promise is proven through simple math calculations. In order to achieve this Canada needs to construct at least 1.096 houses per minute without any breaks or holidays for the next seven years in row. However, given historical performance, it can be said that such an unprecedented construction rate is almost impossible.
Trudeau’s campaign for affordable housing started as early as 2015 when he said that he will deal with affordable housing for Canadians. In February 2024 alone, the average price soars to $719,000 from $448,000 showing an unbelievable jump in cost of over 60 percent within less than ten years. Instead of making housing more affordable, Trudeau’s policies have contributed to a housing crisis that resulted in doubling rent prices and mortgage payments/interests/down payments which forced many families into begging ends meet.
Pierre Poilievre who leads Conservatives rightly criticized Trudeau’s deficit budget for the ninth time highlighting how PM has failed to fulfill his promise about balancing budgets at all costs.” Everything he’s spending on has gotten worse.He promised that the deficits would make housing affordable,but it ended up doubling the cost of rent and mortgage payments and down payments to buy a house,” Poilievre stated thereby emphasizing a gap between what Trudeau says and real life experienced by ordinary Canadians.
These targets set out by Trudeau in relation to housing are not only ambitious but also contradict those his own government has achieved. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian housing starts between 2015 and 2023 varied from 195535 to 271198 in a year respectively with an average of about 225104 houses annually. This means that even these figures cannot guarantee a figure of at least 1.87 million homes to be built by 2031 let alone other additional two million promised.
Apart from housing, the Prime Minister’s failure to deliver on what he promises is a pattern that extends beyond it. The commitment to plant two billion trees by year 2030 under the program costing $3.2 billion launched in 2021 has been a total flop. The Commissioner for Environment and Sustainable Development’s audit found that just about 1.5% of this ten-year aim had been achieved as of December,2022 and then further declared that “Unless significant changes are made, it is unlikely that the program will meet its objectives.”
We conducted a poll in our YouTube community section, inviting Canadians to share insights on Trudeau’s Housing Plan. The results were surprising, with everyone stating they’re merely empty promises and unrealistic expectations. Join the ongoing conversation on our Scoop Canada YouTube Channel! Vote and share your thoughts to ensure your voice shapes Canada’s future.
Trudeau’s housing plan claims to make housing affordable, with a goal of ensuring “no hard-working Canadian should have to spend more than 30% of their income on shelter costs.” Nonetheless this is far from reality. For example, the median household in Canada spends record-breaking 63.5% on mortgage while in Vancouver; an average household uses extremely high percentage (106.3%) on homeownership costs. By refusing or ignoring this stark contrast between Trudeau’s rhetoric and reality, it demonstrates how much housing affordability crisis has worsened under his watch as PM of Canada even though there are lots of rhetorics being repeated over time because they may sound good politically.
Regarding housing, Canada builds approximately 1.5 million units on an annual basis despite her population being more than 8.5 times lesser than that of the US. However, to achieve this target, it would be required that each Canadian develop nearly three times more houses per capita in comparison with Americans which appears an insuperable task in light of their historical feebleness and difficulties to increase the capacity of its construction industry up to such grandiose objectives as these.
Canadians deserve better than empty promises and unrealistic targets. The reality is that Trudeau’s housing plans are no more than a mirage. They are charades made by politicians who do not understand the realities faced by families trying to cope with skyrocketing housing prices and no real answer at hand. Even as the crisis deepens, Prime Minister Trudeau’s credibility continues to sink lower as Canadians wonder if his latest word would ever translate into action.
Trudeau has demonstrated a poor commitment track record and failed interventions which put him under scrutiny about his capability of meeting his bill on housing. It means that unless there is an addressing of fundamental underlying issues associated with housing affordability crisis in Canada, then perhaps people may have to come to terms with the fact that statements made by their Premier constitute nothing but rhetoric devoid of any practical actions or realities.”
Last Updated on by Alshaar Ansari