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Ontario Liberals would ban “new non-resident” homeownership, tax empty homes and bring in province-wide rent control.
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Liberal Leader Stephen Del Duca released his costed election platform Monday with a commitment to build 1.5 million homes, create the Ontario Home Building Corp. (OHBC) to facilitate affordable homes for first-time buyers, and allow homes with up to three units and two stories to be built as-of-right across Ontario, including secondary and laneway suites.
“It’s hard to have a conversation these days without hearing about the skyrocketing cost of housing,” Del Duca said in a statement. “The fact is it’s getting harder and harder for people to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in.”
The Liberal plan calls for rent control for all units across Ontario.
A “use-it-or-lose-it” rule would apply to speculators holding serviced land with approved building permits.
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“In today’s housing affordability crisis, no home should sit vacant,” the Liberal platform says. “We’ll implement an empty homes tax of 5% of assessed value on non-Canadian owners and 2% for Canadian owners with vacant residential units in all urban areas … We’ll also work with our federal partners to ban new non-resident ownership in Ontario’s housing market for at least the next four years.”
Other election promises in the campaign already released are buck-a-ride transit fares, 20-student class caps, a return of Grade 13 and commitments to improve home care, long-term care, access to doctors and nurse practitioners and to ban handguns .
Ontario Liberals said the plan is cushioned by $3.4 billion in contingency funds in 2022-23 — an amount that will grow to $4.8 billion in 2025-26.
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A costing provided by the Liberals forecasts a Del Duca government would spend $3.56 billion more in 2023-24 than outlined in the Doug Ford government’s 2022 budget and $1.38 billion more in the following year.
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO) and the Auditor General of Ontario have both concluded that the Ford budget has unusually high contingencies in the billions of dollars, and the Liberals’ platform calls for some of these unspent funds to be “reallocated.”
Under the Liberals, the annual operating deficit would be $19.9 billion this year, the same as the 2022 budget, and $15.86 billion next year, which would be $4.5 billion higher than Ford’s plan.
Liberals say they have a plan to eliminate the deficit by 2026/27, but Del Duca added he would not prioritize balancing the books over public services.
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“This Del Duca-Wynne platform is nothing more than a back of the napkin Liberal ‘stretch goal’ littered with costing holes,” the Ontario Progressive Conservatives said in a statement. “We all remember the 15 years of Del Duca-Wynne Liberals, who raised taxes, killed jobs, and jacked up hydro rates to the highest in the entire country. Ontario can’t afford to go backwards with the Del Duca-Wynne Liberals.
The Ontario NDP responded in a statement that the Liberals are “in a race with the Conservatives” to balance the budget at the expense of desperately needed investments like mental health, dental care and prescription drugs.
Horwath’s team also criticized the Liberals for leaving 20,000 people on long-term care wait lists, cutting 1,600 nursing jobs, reneging on a previous rent control promise, letting hydro rates “skyrocket” and selling off Hydro One
When asked about decisions made by the previous Liberal government under former premier Kathleen Wynne and while he was at the cabinet table, Del Duca said, “new leader, new team.”
