Trudeau ducks question on what constitutes affordable housing

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weighed in today on the high cost of housing in Canada. He says the prices we’re seeing are way too high, but he isn’t saying how much he thinks home prices should come down.

The Prime Minister was at an event in London promoting a program by his government to encourage home building. And like many other Canadians, he was talking about home prices.

“We’re facing a shortage of housing right now and that’s why prices of homes have become far too high. It’s not fair to young people who feel like cities are turning their backs on them,” Trudeau said.

For what may be the first time publicly, he said prices shouldn’t go any higher.

“One of the things we know is that prices, house pricing cannot continue to go up,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau was announcing $74 million to help the City of London build “affordable” housing.

But when CHCH News’ Al Sweeney asked, he wasn’t saying what an affordable price is, or how much prices have to come down to reach that level.

“These are the things we are addressing right now. Obviously, prices in downtown Toronto or downtown Hamilton are going to be very different from other parts of the country. But everywhere they’re too high,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau’s program would help cities like London build thousands of new houses over the next few years.

But the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation says Canada needs three-and-a-half million new homes to restore affordability and that wouldn’t be for seven years.

“Given the number of immigrants that the Liberal government is bringing in, which is some of the largest number of immigrants we’ve ever seen, this year, between that and a lack of construction and coordination between all levels of government, I think it would be almost impossible for home prices to decline enough where incomes would come back into alignment with home prices,” Michael St. Jean of Michael St. Jean Realty said.

Realtors in Hamilton say the Prime Minister is bringing in thousands of immigrants with money to buy houses, and that means prices are going higher.

“The housing will go up and right now I feel in 2026, and the beginning of 2027, we’re going to experience the same thing we just experienced in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. We’re going to have a boom happening in the next three to four years,” Rob Golfi from ReMax Escarpment Golfi Realty said.