Jagmeet Singh continued his push to win progressive votes on Tuesday by promising an NDP government would invest billions of dollars in affordable housing to help Canadians struggling to make ends meet.
The commitment was the NDP鈥檚 latest pledge to expand social programs. The party鈥檚 promises have included universal pharmacare and free tuition for post-secondary education while promising higher taxes on large corporations and the wealthy.
Yet Singh also deflected questions about how and when an NDP government would tackle the federal deficit, saying only that he would make different choices from Justin Trudeau鈥檚 Liberals and that his priority is helping Canadians now.
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鈥淲e want to take the budget very seriously, and we鈥檒l look at what that means in the future,鈥� Singh said during a campaign event at a non-profit housing complex in downtown Ottawa, a few kilometres from Parliament Hill.
鈥淏ut right now our priority鈥檚 investing in some of the crises that people are going through.鈥�
Singh鈥檚 stop in the capital on Tuesday meant a return to Ontario, where he spent the first few days of the campaign before a tour of western Quebec over the weekend. He was in Ottawa Centre, where Liberal Catherine McKenna defeated New Democrat Paul Dewar in 2015. The seat has historically flipped back and forth between the Liberals and the NDP.
After kicking a soccer ball with some children, Singh announced that an NDP government would build 500,000 new affordable homes over 10 years, starting with an immediate investment of $5 billion.
鈥淥ur priorities are the people behind me, the families who need affordable housing, the people who tell me that they cannot find a place to live,鈥� Singh said during the low-key campaign event before attacking the Liberals鈥� record.
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The NDP leader cited a report by parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux in June that found under the Liberals鈥� plan, spending on affordable housing is slated to fall as a percentage of the economy over the next decade.
While the raw dollar figure is set to increase, Giroux found federal spending on housing is slated to decline from 0.13 per cent of Canada鈥檚 gross domestic product in 2017-18 to 0.11 per cent in 2027-28.
Meanwhile, census data released Tuesday shows roughly one-third of Canadian households, 4.7 million, live in rental housing and they are often low-income earners, young adults, or newcomers to Canada.
In addition, 44 per cent of renters under age 30 spend 30 per cent or more of their incomes on housing. More than half of young renters in Toronto, Metro Vancouver and Ottawa do.
Similar affordability issues are found among seniors (including for 64 per cent of those renting in Regina), recent immigrants to Canada, and single mothers.
鈥淲e hear Mr. Trudeau talk about there is a housing crisis with more of those pretty words,鈥� Singh said during the campaign event. 鈥淵ou know, acknowledging the problem, but then when it comes to the actual solving of the problem, empty promises.鈥�
Yet Singh was hard-pressed to say where he would find $5 billion for affordable housing in the first year of his mandate, and instead pointed to the Liberal government having found billions to pay for corporate tax cuts and the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Singh painted the $4.5 billion for the pipeline and $14 billion in corporate tax cuts, which the government has said were needed to help Canadian companies compete with U.S. competitors following similar cuts down south, as a handout to the wealthy.
Some experts have said such a characterization is misleading as it does not acknowledge how ordinary Canadians might benefit, too, by driving investment in the country and getting Canadian oil to more lucrative markets.
鈥淲hen something is a priority, Mr. Trudeau seems to go out and do it,鈥� said Singh. 鈥淏ut it hasn鈥檛 been a priority to make people鈥檚 lives better. We believe our priority should be investing in people, investing in housing, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e going to do.鈥�
While Singh noted his previous promises to hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy, close various tax loopholes and crack down on tax evasion, he indicated all revenues from those measures will be put into social programs.
鈥淲ith these measures we鈥檙e going to increase revenue and we鈥檙e going to use the revenue towards programs that actually invest in our country,鈥� he said of the tax hikes and other initiatives. 鈥淲e know that if we invest in people, we build a better future.鈥�
Both the New Democrats and Conservatives promised in the last federal election to run balanced budgets if elected, while the Liberals were elected on a promise to run modest deficits during the first few years of their mandate before returning to balance.
In the three full fiscal years since the Liberals came to power, however, the federal government has posted $52 billion worth of shortfalls even though the economy has had a solid run of growth.
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Ahead of next month鈥檚 election, the Liberals have laid out projections calling for five more years of deficits of at least $10 billion. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is promising to pull Canada out of the red in about five years.
Green Leader Elizabeth May has also committed to returning Canada to budgetary balance in five years. Maxime Bernier鈥檚 new People鈥檚 Party of Canada is the only political party that鈥檚 promised a quick path to balanced books 鈥� within two years.
鈥擶ith files from Jordan Press
Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misnamed the pipeline project the federal government bought.
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