Tories vow to scrap land transfer tax

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This article was published 06/09/2023 (775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Tories made a pitch to young voters Wednesday by promising first-time homebuyers will no longer have to pay a costly land transfer tax.

“Our children are facing a much different housing landscape than we were years ago,” said Rochelle Squires, minister responsible for housing, on the lawn of a constituent’s home that’s up for sale. The home in the suburban south Winnipeg constituency is listed for $469,900.

She said the Tories, if re-elected would “almost immediately” eliminate for first-time homebuyers tax that amounted to approximately $5,700 for the average single family home sold in July in Winnipeg.

Squires estimated the promise would result in $35 to $40 million in lost tax revenue a year.

The land transfer tax is one of several costs first-time homebuyers struggle to afford, such as a down payment and legal fees, said Burrows PC candidate Navraz Brar, who works as a homebuilder, and joined Squires at the announcement.

“Young people like me are finding it increasingly difficult to buy a house,” Brar said.

An hour later on the edge of downtown Winnipeg, the Right to Housing Coalition unveiled its top five election campaign priorities to address the affordable housing crisis.

The group says the province needs to add 1,000 rent-geared-to-income units per year for the next decade, and to protect existing units from falling into disrepair or being sold — such as the Lions Place non-profit housing that was sold in February to a for-profit real estate investment company in Alberta.

“The 10,000 units that we’re calling for is to just meet the needs of very low income households in Manitoba,” said Kirsten Bernas, chair of the provincial coalition. “Home ownership is not an option for them,” she said in an interview. The lowest-income Manitobans spend an average of 68 per cent of their income on housing — if they have housing — and nearly 6,000 are waiting for social housing.

The coalition, which includes 75 non-profit organizations, said increased access to supports for tenants and limits to above-guideline rent increases are needed.

It called on the next government to work with social enterprises to train and hire low-income people to build and maintain social housing.

It has issued a survey to political parties, which have until Sept. 15 to respond to the coalition’s five priorities. It will share the parties’ responses before the Oct. 3 election, Bernas said.

Squires said Wednesday her party’s strategy includes $126 million to ensure 700 net new units of social and affordable housing will be created this fiscal year. If re-elected, the Tories will set a new target for next year, she said without promising to reach the coalition’s 1,000 target per year target.

She said the spring budget increased funding for repair and maintenance of Manitoba’s social housing stock to speed up turnaround of units and get families moved in to them. To stop the sale of affordable units, the province established an annualized “pot of money” that non-profits can apply for if their funding agreements with the province are about to expire, Squires said.

The NDP vowed Wednesday to increase the supply of social and affordable housing units, but didn’t commit to the 1,000 additional units per year if elected.

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The party said it would reinvest in the maintenance of existing units and establish regulations that would stop the sale of non-profit housing and halt unfair rent increases and reno-victions. It would also give renters a $700 tax credit. The NDP committed to wraparound supports as part of its plan to address homelessness and to hiring 100 more mental health workers.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said his party will support the coalition’s demands.

“If you talk about the long-term changes that have got to take place, it takes a while to move a system towards prevention, but the fact that it takes a while has been an excuse to never do it,” Lamont said. “This is the time to start moving on these issues immediately.”

— with file from Danielle DaSilva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.