Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s office is backtracking on comments he made in an interview with Global News in which he had said that Ottawa is in negotiations with the provinces over cutting the GST on new build homes.
“We are in discussions with all of the provinces and territories about taking down the GST for one year on new home purchases,” Robertson said in an interview with Global News on Tuesday.
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After the interview was completed and Global News published an article quoting Robertson, his office reached out to Global News to say the minister’s comments were inaccurate.
“To provide a correction to the Minister’s comment: as per the legislation, Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply, we are actually in talks on a variety of measures that will improve housing supply, not limited to a GST cut,” Robertson’s director of communications Mohammad Hussain told Global News.
Last week, the federal and Ontario governments agreed to remove the 13 per cent sales tax on new homes in the province, valued up to $1 million for one year.
Both governments also agreed to split $8.8 billion over 10 years to pay for infrastructure in Ontario cities that cut development charges, which are municipal taxes levied to pay for things like sewers and roads to new subdivisions.
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