The Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) says claims it invested $250,000 in federal home equity tax research are “not accurate”. A CMHC media relations representative told Yahoo Finance Canada in an e-mail that the funding will be used for the Solutions Lab initiative in an 18-month project to improve housing affordability in Canada, exploring an array of solutions.
The initiative, launched in 2018 under the National Housing Strategy, is working with the University of British Columbia organization, Generation Squeeze, to identify affordable housing solutions.
“While the project includes a research component, it is primarily focused on confirming the issues,” a CMHC spokeswoman explained. “Once the issues have been further analyzed, the most promising solutions will be further developed with stakeholders, prototyped, tested and prioritized for possible implementation and scaling.”
In other words, the CMHC has not outlined any plans to implement a concrete strategy from this initiative, let alone any tax-related policies. The organization has further clarified the purpose of the research initiative on Twitter:
This convo & headline are misleading. Funds to @GenSqueeze through our Solutions Lab, was to research solutions to #housing, wealth, and inequality. A home equity tax is an incorrect characterization of the upcoming research. Plus, research ≠ tax policy decisions. pic.twitter.com/7RTuZeIPfe
— CMHC (@CMHC_ca) July 17, 2020
Adam Vaughn, a Liberal party member of parliament in Ontario, said, “We as a government have not asked for such a study and are not aware of any such study, nor has CMHC commissioned one to our knowledge,” in a discussion with Mortgage Professionals Canada on Friday morning.
UPDATE re Home Equity Tax
From @TOAdamVaughan, Parliamentary Secretary to Min of Families, Children & Social Development @HonAhmedHussen:
“We as a government have not asked for such a study and are not aware of any such study, nor has CMHC commissioned one to our knowledge.“— Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) 🇨🇦 (@MortgageProsCan) July 17, 2020
A spokesperson for Generation Squeeze said in an e-mail to Yahoo Finance Canada, “The 18-month project is currently in the design stage, with sessions expected to begin in September 2020. The specific solutions of focus will be determined by the stakeholders themselves once the process begins. More information about this project will become available once the sessions are underway. A final report outlining the Solutions Lab activities and participants will be published at the end of the project in early 2021.”
The article by Blacklock’s Reporter prompted swift criticism on Twitter with users arguing that this policy would be punitive for homeowners.
