![Canada's housing crisis will take years to resolve - Finance Minister](https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/trkd-images/LYNXMPEJ8F0AM_L.jpg)
©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A house under construction in a neighborhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg//File Photo
(Reuters) – An affordable housing crisis hurting the Canadian government’s popularity will take years to resolve even if construction hits an 80-year high, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Saturday.
Her comments were among the first from a senior member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to acknowledge the scale of the challenge. Polls show the Liberals lagging behind their Conservative rivals, who blame Ottawa for high inflation and rising home prices.
Housing is primarily the responsibility of the ten provinces and major municipalities, with Ottawa’s role limited to policy advice and financial incentives.
“It will take all of us – the federal government and the provinces, cities and towns, the private sector and nonprofits … to work together for a common goal, not for weeks or months, but for years,” Freeland said.
“Building the homes that Canada increasingly needs will once again require a major national effort,” she told a conference in Montreal, saying the country would need to build homes at a speed and scale seen since the 1940s. and fifty has not been seen again.
In an effort to boost supply, the government has said it will eliminate the 5% federal consumption tax on the construction of new rental apartments and is calling on cities to do more to address the problem.