Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at a press conference in Brampton, Ont., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre is encouraging Prime Minister Mark Carney to adopt Conservative plans to deal with the country's housing crisis, which he said is entering a new phase as prices begin to fall in some cities.

At a press conference Tuesday in Brampton, Ont., the Conservative leader blamed Liberal policies for the housing crunch and invited the government to "steal our best ideas."

"They first inflated the housing bubble, and now Liberals are bursting the housing bubble," he said, noting that construction is slowing in Ontario.

A report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released Tuesday said that overall housing starts in the first six months of this year were near all-time highs.

But the agency also identified concerns in two of the most expensive housing markets. It said Toronto is on pace for its lowest annual housing starts in 30 years and reported a slowdown in construction in Vancouver compared to 2024.

In Toronto, construction of new condominiums dropped by 60 per cent in the first half of 2025, and the agency predicts that for at least two more years, housing starts in the country's largest city will be well below what's needed to restore affordability.

The CMHC report also found homebuilding was running close to a record pace in the first half of this year in cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax, driven by construction of rental apartments.

The agency projected that Canada's overall housing starts will need to almost double by 2035 to meet demand, rising to 480,000 homes per year.

The Liberals pledged during the April election campaign to more than double housing starts and to create a new agency focused on building affordable housing — Build Canada Homes — to achieve that.

Poilievre argued Tuesday the government has failed to act on that promise.

"Mr. Carney has accomplished the impossible. It is a triple crisis, with prices too high for buyers to buy, too low for sellers to sell, and inadequate for builders to build," he said.

He said the government should adopt a policy his party proposed during the federal election campaign in April — to incentivize municipalities to speed up the permitting process and drop their development fees by tying infrastructure funding to homebuilding.

He also tweaked two of his campaign pledges, saying the government should eliminate the capital gains tax on money reinvested in homebuilding and eliminate the five per cent federal sales tax on all purchases of homes under $1.3 million.

Those changes, he said, would kick-start a housing boom in Canada. "You know the great thing about homebuilding? It's Trump-proof," Poilievre said.

The CMHC report noted that developers have said tariffs on construction materials are "squeezing profit margins," particularly in rental construction.

The Liberals promised during the election to eliminate the federal sales tax for first-time homebuyers on homes worth up to $1 million.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne introduced legislation to enact that change in May. That bill is still before Parliament, which is set to resume on Monday.

Poilievre, who will be back in the House of Commons for the first time since the election, said he would be willing to work with the minority government if it adopts his ideas.

He also said the Liberals need to "get immigration under control," arguing that the large influx of newcomers over the past decade has caused housing shortages and is to blame for rising youth unemployment.

Housing Minister Gregor Robertson's office offered no comment on Poilievre's claim that immigration is driving the housing shortage.

In a statement, a spokesperson for his office said the Liberals were elected with a mandate to make the housing market work better. The statement also noted the government has a policy to prioritize Canadian materials in homebuilding, including softwood lumber, which is being hit with U.S. tariffs.

"We will build homes at a pace and scale not seen in generations," said Renée Proctor.

— With files from Maan Alhmidi in Brampton, Ont.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025