Housing Digest #6
Rising Homelessness, Financial Crime Legislation in Limbo, and Waiving Goodbye to Penalties 531,000 Times
1. Ontario reaches ‘tipping point’ with more than 81K people experiencing homelessness
After months of pressure, Ontario announced its solution to homelessness encampments at the end of last year.
The government is promising funds to help with homelessness programs, as well as new powers for police and a threat to local service managers who fail to deal with homeless sites in their cities.
The bill — which has not yet passed — is set to strengthen penalties for people who repeatedly break trespass laws and allow police and provincial offences officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.
It also comes with an extra $75.5 million for homelessness prevention programs, including $50 million for affordable housing, $20 million to expand shelter capacity and $5.5 million to top up the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to immediately free up emergency shelter spaces.
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Municipal leaders, however, believe the government’s announcements still fall far too short. […] The AMO Report estimates Ontario needs to spend an extra $11 billion over the next decade on 75,000 affordable and supportive housing units, while another $2 billion is needed to house encampment residents.
“Without this investment, taxpayers will end up paying much more — through our shelters, hospitals, police budgets, in addition to the human suffering,” Jones said.
2. CRA waived $2.5 billion in penalties and interest on federal vacant homes tax
Globe and Mail, January 3, 2025
The Canada Revenue Agency has waived nearly $2.5-billion in interest and penalties related to Ottawa’s tax on vacant and underused homes held by foreign owners, a figure that dwarfs the projected annual revenue of the new levy.
The underused housing tax (UHT), which took effect in 2022, imposes an annual tax of 1 per cent per year on residential properties owned by foreign nationals that are left underused or vacant, with the aim of boosting housing availability.
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The figure vastly exceeds the $49-million Ottawa collected from the tax in fiscal 2023-24 (April-March), the documents show.
3. Why are new homes so expensive? This report says don't blame the developers
Ottawa Citizen, January 3, 2025
“I was also surprised at just how personal it was for many of them. They feel like they’ve been tasked with a really socially important goal and they’re not being given the tools or resources, or even, at times, the empathy from decision makers that they need to get there. They view themselves as community builders — as city builders.”
But, despite the urgent need for housing and the rising costs that are putting the dream of home ownership out of reach for so many, the homebuilders say they feel abandoned by government.
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Private developers build about 90 per cent of all the new homes in the province and yet municipal governments tend to treat them shabbily, according to Grove-White, who says he supports the NDP and is not a shill for the development industry.
4. Why prorogation could hurt Canada’s international reputation on financial crime
Investigative Journalism Foundation, January 14, 2025
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Last year, Toronto Dominion Bank agreed to pay more than US$3 billion to the United States government for its failure to stop criminals from washing dirty money through the bank.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the bank was fined just C$9.2 million under the country’s administrative fee system.
The fall economic statement tabled last month included a proposal to apply a 40-fold increase to the size of the fines the government can issue.
But it’s uncertain when that amendment could actually be passed, let alone implemented.