On March 26, Ontario announced a partnership with Ottawa to fund tax relief on new housing and a reduction of municipal development charges.
At the time, we said, “If housing unaffordability is a consideration, BC should have been first out of the gate announcing a partnership with Ottawa.”
BC has the highest average home price at $947,859, Ontario’s price is $847,813 and the country’s average is $702,079.
On June 18, three months after Ontario’s deal, Prime Minister Carney and Premier Eby announced a deal for BC.
British Columbia’s homebuyers, paying the highest home prices in Canada, did not get the tax relief offered to Ontario.
The Ontario agreement removes the full 13% HST for all buyers of new homes priced up to $1 million with a sliding rebate for homes up to $1.5 million. The deal includes investors, if they rent out the unit.
Since Ontario’s HST rebate, new home sales are nearly triple the sales compared with the same time last year. Builders are also rehiring staff and subtrades boosting Ontario’s employment and economy.
In British Columbia, home sales continue to decline vs 2025.
The Ontario deal includes a total of $8.8 billion over 10 years for housing infrastructure projects, including reducing municipal development charges (DCCs) up to 50%.
The BC deal includes a total of $3.2 billion over 10 years with the intent of reducing DCCs. However, Canada’s Infrastructure Fund attempted a similar effort and the CRD simply postponed the DCCs to 2027 adding up to $9,044 per unit. Victoria boosted DCCs up to 258% two years ago.
Tax relief in the form of a GST rebate for all homebuyers would have added direct and immediate benefit to homebuyers, builders, trades, suppliers and the economy in general.
While a GST rebate is presently available to first-time buyers only, this segment alone is not large enough to breathe new life into housing.
Govt fees, taxes and regulations have put housing out-of-reach for the average homebuyer.
The Ontario deal helped address this, while the BC deal rejects direct tax relief for homebuyers. Why?
One plausible answer is that Premier Eby directed the federal funding to other initiatives to fill gaps created by his $13.3 billion deficit.
In other words, politics and BC’s fiscal mismanagement are why the BC deal took so long and why homebuyers have been cut out of tax relief.
This column appears Wednesdays in the Times Colonist.
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