Federal budget will help Mississaugans find homes, local MP promises
Published April 8, 2022 at 12:16 pm
Mississauga residents looking for a new place to live–including first-time homebuyers–are among those who’ll benefit most from Ottawa’s latest budget, a Mississauga MP and federal cabinet minister says.
Mississauga Centre MP Omar Alghabra, also Canada’s transport minister, told insauga.com in a telephone interview last night (April 7) that the financial blueprint delivered earlier in the day will cut red tape and get much-needed housing built in Mississauga and across the country.
He described his government’s plan to tackle the housing affordability crisis as “ambitious” and “historic,” noting it includes $4 billion to help municipalities with planning and delivery of badly needed housing projects.
That initiative calls for the development of 100,000 net new housing units in the next five years.
Additionally, there’s a $1.5 billion commitment over two years for as many as 6,000 new affordable housing units.
Alghabra acknowledged many people may be skeptical of such big promises coming from government.
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That’s why, he says, the plan, while ambitious, is also realistic.
“The best way to assure people (that we’ll deliver on these promises) is to make promises that are doable. There’s not one magic bullet to fix this overnight,” he said. “I appreciate the skeptics…and we are going to get to work.”
The Mississauga Centre MP pointed to more affordable childcare–promised last year and delivered this year, he said–as an example of the feds rolling up their sleeves and following through on promises.
In delivering the budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged to tackle the housing affordability crisis on several fronts by:
- taking aim at foreign homebuyers
- providing more tools for young Canadians priced out of the real estate market
- pledging to spend billions of dollars to encourage builders to increase supply
“Buying a house is out of reach for far too many Canadians,” Freeland wrote in the forward of the budget.
Alghabra said the budget shows the federal government is “hard at work addressing the challenges” faced by Canadians, specifically that of affordable housing and getting rid of red tape that’s been preventing enough homes from being built.
Younger Canadians are among the most affected by the housing crisis, as they haven’t been able to save enough money to keep up with fast-rising prices.
Freeland pledged to help on that front by creating a tax-free First Home Savings Account that would give first-time homebuyers a new tool to save up to $40,000 towards a home.
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