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Trudeau announces new affordability measures, including dropping GST from construction of rental housing

Ontario — as well as B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador — announced that it would drop the provincial portion of the HST from purpose-built rental housing construction.

Published Sep 14, 2023 at 9:08pm

By
Davis Legree and Marco Vigliotti
Trudeau announces new affordability measures, including dropping GST from construction of rental housing
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the construction site of an affordable housing project in London, Ont. on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. (Nicole Osborne/The Canadian Press)

The Liberal caucus retreat ended with a bang on Thursday, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a suite of measures aimed at helping Canada’s middle class address the country’s affordability crisis.

Among the policy commitments include providing the Competition Bureau with heightened authority to nix anti-competitive mergers, in an effort to stabilize grocery prices, as well as extending the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan repayment deadline by a year, in the hopes of providing relief to small business owners.

However, Trudeau received the most applause from his caucus members when he announced a measure aimed at addressing Canada’s housing crisis — the removal of GST on the construction of rental housing in Canada.

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