The 2023 Ontario budget is focused on improving the housing supply by advancing the province’s More Homes Built Faster measures.
What this means for Ontarians:
➡️ Ontario will advance its priority of building 1.5 million homes by 2031 by strengthening the province’s housing approval fund
➡️ Ontario will implement an increase to the non-resident speculation tax to 25%
➡️ Requesting the federal government to work with the province on a potential Goods and Services Tax and Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) relief for new housing and rental development
Additionally, the budget also focuses on addressing the labour shortage in construction, skilled trades and health care. 2021 and 2022 were two of the strongest years in job growth on record in Ontario.
Current advocacy requests to the Ontario government include:
➡️ Doubling the land transfer tax rebate from $4,000 to $8,000 and indexing it to inflation
➡️ Prohibit the extension of a municipal land transfer tax to municipalities, a penalizing “double tax” to home buyers
➡️ Update the provincial HST rebate to reflect current homes prices and begin indexing the thresholds to housing prices
➡️ Support mortgage fraud prevention efforts by encouraging the federal government to grant CRA-enabled income verification