Article content
Two in three Canadians believe Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is doing a poor job of introducing housing affordability policies, according to a new poll.
The Nanos Research poll for Bloomberg News suggests a flurry of announcements from Trudeau's Liberals over the past six months have yet to resonate with Canadians grappling with rental inflation at a 40-year high and skyrocketing mortgage interest costs have.
Article content
Trudeau appointed a new housing minister, Sean Fraser, in July amid declining poll numbers. Since then, the government has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to cities to speed up the construction of dense housing, cut the federal sales tax on new rental housing construction and introduced new measures to discourage short-term rentals like those offered by Airbnb Inc.
“The fact that only two percent rate the Liberal housing initiatives as very good and another six percent as good shows that there are few who have confidence in these measures to make housing more affordable,” said pollster Nik Nanos.
Residents of Ontario and the western provinces were more likely to say the Trudeau government was doing a poor or very poor job on housing affordability than Atlantic Canada or Quebec. Those under 55 were also more likely to give the Liberals poor marks than older Canadians.
Nanos also asked respondents to evaluate solutions that would make housing more affordable. More than a quarter said building more social housing was the most important solution, while about 17 percent each listed reducing immigration and lowering mortgage rates at the top of the list.
Share this article on your social network