3. Invest directly in affordable housing programs

As mentioned above, there is a clear commitment in the Liberal platform to increasing the amount of affordable housing available, as well as making housing more affordable. The official housing platform lumps housing spending in with social infrastructure investments which also include child care, early learning, seniors facilities, cultural and recreational infrastructure. While a specific dollar amount is not specified for housing alone, the investment in social infrastructure of which housing is a key component is $6 billion over four years, $20 billion over 10 years.  The Liberals’ federal infrastructure investment document states, “Our plan will renew federal leadership in affordable housing, help build more housing units, refurbish existing ones, renew existing co-operative agreements, and provide operational funding support for municipalities.” 

“We don’t just have an affordable housing crisis, we also have a crisis in housing affordability.” - Liberal Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina, Adam Vaughan.

In various forms including the election platform, Trudeau’s speech and in MP Vaughan’s interview there is distinct clarity that the current planned elimination of rent-geared-to-income subsidies for co-op housing would not occur. Additionally, the election platform indicates that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a new Canada Infrastructure Bank will be direction to “provide financing to support construction by the private sector, social enterprises,  co-ops,  and  the  not-for-profit sector of new, affordable rental housing for middle- and low-income Canadians”.

Furthermore, the Liberals indicate in their housing platform that they will work to make federal buildings and lands available at low cost for re-purposing into affordable housing.