Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is accusing corporate landlords of bad behaviour.
Singh, in Toronto Tuesday for an election campaign event, says corporate landlords are buying up buildings, hiking rents and evicting people to make more money.
Singh was joined by Erin Filby, a renter who says she had two months’ rent mistakenly taken from her account and couldn’t pay her other bills until the money was put back.
Filby lives in a rent-controlled unit and says new tenants are being charged double what she pays.
Singh says the building Filby lives in was bought by Brookfield Investments while now-Liberal Leader Mark Carney was its chair.
Last year, the NDP introduced a bill that would have banned corporations from buying existing affordable apartments by restricting sales to individuals, non-profits, municipalities, agencies and co-ops.
Speaking in Halifax Tuesday, Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney said the housing system is strained and affordability remains a challenge.
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He said his government will eliminate the GST for first-time homebuyers that could help Canadians save up to $50,000.
Carney also pledged to ramp up the housing supply.
“We need to build affordable housing at a scale we haven’t seen since the Second World War. My government is going to do that.”
Meanwhile, the Conservatives vowed on Tuesday to slash the GST off all homes worth under $1.3 million.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre claimed this would help build 360,000 extra homes each year, boost Canada’s GDP by $2.5 billion and create tens of thousands of jobs.
“This will mean a savings of up to $65,000 dollars on a new home or $3,000 less in annualized mortgage payments,” Poilievre said at a campaign stop in Vaughan, Ont.
— with files from Global News’ Saba Aziz
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