Freeland Downplays Report Saying Immigration Increases Would Affect Housing Affordability

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland speaks during a news conference on the next phase of the government’s economic plan at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, on Nov. 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is downplaying a 2022 government report that said large immigration increases would impact housing affordability and services, arguing that immigrants are a “real driver” of Canada’s economic growth.

“Canada is probably the country in the world, which is the most welcoming of new Canadians,” Ms. Freeland said during a press conference on housing in Toronto Jan 11. “And as finance minister, I have to say, that is a huge economic strength. It is a real driver of our country’s economic growth, and at a time when all of the industrialized countries in the world are facing huge demographic challenges.”

Documents recently obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information showed that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada analyzed the impact higher immigration would have on the Canadian economy. Ottawa was warned that population growth had “exceeded the growth in available housing units,” and that there was a “misalignment between population growth and housing supply, and how permanent and temporary immigration shapes population growth.”

Nearly 1.2 million people were admitted to Canada between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023 under both permanent and temporary immigration programs, according to Statistics Canada. The country was poised to take in 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023, as well as 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The finance minister acknowledged that Canada needed to build more homes more quickly. To help make that happen the federal government lifted the GST on purpose-built rental projects to incentivize developers to build more rentals. She also highlighted that the federal government added $15 billion to the apartment construction loan financing program in the last Fall Economic Statement.

Ms. Freeland also spoke about the $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund, which has given money to municipalities to encourage the construction of 100,000 new homes across the country. “That is something that was launched in the 2022 budget, there was a lot of eye-rolling, a lot of skepticism ... Well, it’s being rolled out.”

Tying Immigration to Housing

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addressed the report by The Canadian Press on Jan. 12 during his first press conference of the year. He blamed Housing Minister Sean Fraser for the issue, since he was in charge of the immigration portfolio before the summer cabinet shuffle.

“Sean Fraser was the minister of immigration when the government warned him that his policies were leading to housing price inflation, and now Justin Trudeau has promoted him to housing minister,” he said. “You wonder why you can’t afford a home? Well, there’s your answer right there.”

He also said the prime minister’s failure to “make the link between the number of homes and the population growth” has “doubled housing costs.”

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“Conservatives will get back to an approach of immigration that invites a number of people that we can house, employ, and care for in our health care system,” he said.

Mr. Poilievre has steadily criticized the rise of housing costs, but his solutions so far have only pertained to the supply side. He had not discussed the issue of increasing demand caused by immigration.

Mr. Poilievre has vowed to make housing more affordable by tying the amount of federal funding cities receive to the number of housing starts, give bonuses to cities that remove “gatekeepers” holding housing construction back, and sell 15 percent of the federal government’s 37,000 buildings to be turned into affordable homes.