Liberals: There was no plan for capital gains tax on primary residences’ sales

John Aldag

RESPONSE by John Aldag, Liberal candidate for Cloverdale-Langley City:

IN response to your article titled “Is Trudeau Proposing to Introduce Capital Gains Tax on sale of primary residences?” from Sept. 14, 2019 Indo Canadian Voice (page 2).

I would like to clarify the facts by submitting the following response:

The public deserves to know that regarding the recent letter from Andrew Scheer circulating online about a “secret” Liberal plan to “tax the sale of your home at 50%.” – there is no such plan, and there never was.

Andrew Scheer’s letter is a blatant misrepresentation – perhaps to distract from the strength of our government’s plan to ensure middle-class Canadians have access to safe and affordable housing.

Here are the facts:

1. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development held a series of town halls on behalf of the Minister and was asked to report back on some of the ideas to consider, plus what some of the town halls were saying to give a broad cross section of ideas that were circulating.

 2. One of the ideas that emerged form housing town halls was a sliding scale on the capital gains tax on the sale of principle residences – as a way to counter speculation and flipping of properties.

3. This was never a recommendation – it was an idea, and we chose to take a different approach in our housing strategy.

 Here’s what our government has done:

  • Introduced Canada’s first national housing strategy in 2017 – a $40-billion, 10-year plan to help Canadians access housing that meets their needs and that they can afford.
  • Introduced the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, providing eligible Canadian families up to a 10% shared equity mortgage to help make their mortgage payments more affordable.
  • Increased the Home Buyers’ Plan withdrawal limit from $25,000 to $35,000, providing families greater access to their RRSP savings to buy their first home.
  • Strengthened the enforcement framework by improving monitoring of private sector partners and collaborating with government leads in order to deter financial crime in real estate, including mortgage fraud and money laundering.

Here’s what a re-elected Liberal government will do:

  • Expand the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, making homes valued at up to $789,000 (in Greater Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria) eligible for up to a 10% shared-equity mortgage – vastly improving access to the program for Cloverdale – Langley City families to help keep their monthly mortgage payments affordable.
  • Introduce a national speculation and vacancy tax of 1% annually on properties owned by non-Canadians who don’t reside in Canada.
  • Our government is working hard to ensure that the middle-class, and those working hard to join it, can find a safe and affordable place to call home, while the Conservatives voted against the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive and have no plan to help address the real concerns Canadians have about being able to own their own home.

Mr. Scheer’s letter also says that our government raised taxes for middle-class Canadians, which couldn’t be further from the truth. In 2015, we campaigned on a promise to cut taxes and create opportunity for the middle class, and we’ve done exactly that. (Department of Finance proof: https://www.fin.gc.ca/n18/data/18-077_1-eng.asp)

The fact is, we lowered taxes for the middle class saving the average person at least $720/year, introduced the tax-free Canada Child Benefit, and helped Canadians create over 1 million jobs since 2015. Those are verifiable facts.

1 COMMENT

  1. There was no mandate for a carbon tax and it was concealed at election 2015 by Trudeau. Operating underhandedly and not fair minded to voters, Trudeau did this intentionally. Fast forward , NEWSFLASH, Trudeau has up
    His sleeve several tax plans for which like carbon tax, he concealed and for which like carbon tax, he had no mandate.

    Come on Canadians, be fair to yourself and your country, do what deserves to be done. Everybody vote COC or join the national bankruptcy list with france, greece and iceland

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