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PM discusses housing crisis and ‘generational fairness’ in podcast for group that wants an annual surtax on all homes over $1M
Trudeau, in a podcast interview with the Generation Squeeze advocacy group, refused to take any responsibility for the current affordability crisis, but said the “challenge” was getting seniors and older Canadians to “understand” the fundamental shift in the housing market.
What does that mean for older Canadians with homes?
Trudeau didn’t spell out any new policy in the podcast, but it is telling that he appeared on the podcast for Generation Squeeze, an organization in favour of taxing people’s primary residence.
A report by the group advocates for an annual surtax on all homes over $1 million. Homes valued at $1 million to $1.5 million would face a surtax of 0.2 per cent (possibly rising to 0.5 per cent over time) and homes of $2 million would be hit with a one per cent tax.
Federal and provincial governments worried about implementing a “home equity tax” could instead just make it a “technical” change to tax policy, suggests the group helpfully.
The group is also a little dismissive and a little envious of the “wealth windfall” to older Canadians.
“Rising home prices bestowed this wealth on them while they slept and watched TV,” reports the group.
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In the podcast, host Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze and a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, remarked that “generational fairness” was about fairness for the young and the old.
But the whole of the interview was geared towards what the older generation can do for the young.
Kershaw said that Generation X and Boomers had benefitted from the “sacrifice” of younger generations who were “tolerating” high rents and putting off home ownership dreams, all to protect the home equity of those “who came before.”
The prime minister seemed to agree. Older Canadians had got the message about such things as climate change, but still needed instruction on the changing housing market.
“The place where I think there’s still work, because it doesn’t feel intuitively like there’s a solution, is around housing,” said Trudeau. “You talk to (an) older generation of folks and they say, “Oh no, I remember I had to scrimp and save for years before we could set a down payment on a home. It was really hard. It was a big expense. Housing is always hard’.”
“No, you didn’t,” said Trudeau. “There is something foundationally different in this generation that young people have great jobs and a solid side hustle and shifted expectations and they still can’t find a place to actually start on that path towards home equity or home ownership. That shift is different.”
But while the PM finds no problem making older Canadians feel guilty, or creating division with youth, he accepts no responsibility himself for the problem.
“Part of it is the under-investment in housing construction over decades,” said Trudeau, before quickly moving on. “But there’s other things happening and getting seniors to understand that there is something different, I think, is a bit of a challenge that we’re still working on.”
Reflecting on young people who voted for him in 2015, Trudeau said, “The irony is now 10 years later I look at those young people who got involved with me the first time, they’re now in their late 20s, and they’re saying, ‘I can’t afford a home. I thought you were supposed to be fixing this, and instead the world has gone in the wrong direction’.”
And what succour does the prime minister give to those betrayed so long ago?
“You can say, ‘Look, it would have been way worse had we not made the investments we did’,” he said.
And without a trace of irony, our prime minister since 2015 added, “There is something fundamentally shifted in our economy that young people don’t have the kinds of opportunity they had before.”
It appears that for the Liberals, anyone who has accumulated any money or wealth is now a target to pay for their mistakes.
Can anyone forget last month when Freeland was predicting a revolt by the enraged proletariat against the castles of the rich?
“Do we want to live in a country where those at the very top live lives of luxury but must do so in gated communities behind ever higher fences using private health care and airplanes because the public sphere is so degraded and the wrath of the vast majority of their lesser privileged compatriots burns so hot,” she asked.
In the podcast, Trudeau thanked Kershaw for being so “incredibly helpful in our thinking.” And when Kershaw asked about appointing a minister for generational fairness, Trudeau replied, “I think it’s a really interesting idea and I think it’s something that you and I can probably work together on.”
But remember, it won’t be a home equity tax, just a technical change to the tax system.
National Post
