Over 4 million people have now seen Pierre Poilievre’s outstanding 15-minute mini documentary on Youtube regarding the housing crisis. If you missed it, watch it here.

This is the exchange between the party leaders in parliament in early January 2024.

There’s no doubt that immigration is having a huge impact on housing.  Pierre discusses this in an interview.

Victor doesn’t intend to add anything that has not been said on the subject of housing nationally by Pierre, but he does have some insights to share with you on the housing crises in Windsor-Tecumseh brought about by Trudeau and his local Photo-Op puppet the Liberal incumbent MP Irek Kusmierczyk.

Victor knows full well the anxiety and stress many families are going through.  You can see a city in trouble when you see more and more  people living in their vehicles.  There has been several stories of seniors, single handicapped men (one with a dog) who parked behind Walmart.  WalMart has always been known to allow travellers to use their parking lots and their washroom facilities. But in 2021 during Covid, the Mayor of Windsor told Walmart they had to remove them.  These are fellow Canadians who need help.

The wait list for social housing in Windsor is roughly 5,400, according to Kirk Whittal, CCO of the Windsor-Essex Community Housing Corporation (CHC).

Meanwhile, the refugees are being accommodated in local hotels, they are being fed and clothed by the Federal Government.  So not only do we have a shortage in rental properies, the anxiety of home owners regarding high interest mortgage repayments increases with each passing day. As more and more people are coming to the end of their low interest fixed rate term, the shock settles in as they now have huge mortgage renewal rates that they simply cannot afford.  The only alternative is to extend their amortization period  so far into the future that they can never foresee it ever being paid off.

Many Gen X, Millennials,  and younger have lost all hope to ever own their own home. They are living in parents’ basements or paying over $2,000 monthly to rent, which in turn denies them the chance to ever save the money for a down payment. Builders who are building real homes as opposed to apartment blocks, are building properties that cost circa $700K to buy. Completely beyond the reach of first-time buyers.

Victor’s local builder donors and supporters inform him they are not building anything at all to buy at or around $275K because they can’t. It’s a complete mess that our present Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk has helped the Trudeau government propagate locally.
Victor will explain what the problems are locally in the building industry and what he would do as your Conservative MP for Windsor-Tecumseh.

Housing Crisis ~ How did we get here?

Let’s start with land. To develop a good-sized sub division, a building company would need to buy approximately 25 acres. If that land was on the edge of town, designated as “agricultural land in waiting, potential for residential,” the cost of that land could be around $100,000 per acre. That would require an investment of $2.5 million. There is the risk that after the land is purchased, planning permission would be refused. There is an example of that very thing in this area. At a time before Justin Trudeau came to power, you would see significant building on the site within 1 year. Thereby generating a return on investment to the builder within a reasonable timeframe. Nowadays, with the “Bureaucratic Gatekeepers” Pierre Poilievre refers to under the direction of The Liberals and NDP, it takes approx. 5 years to even start receiving a return of development investment on that land. The term which Canadians are famous for, “Git er done” seems to be a thing of the past.

Let’s examine the financial implications of that delay to the builder, before we look at the reasons for the delay. Some of the reasons for the delay to start building. There is an army of city bureaucrats who are invited to a seat at the table to approve the building project. These are the people Pierre Poilievre refers to as the Gatekeepers. Victor likes to call them “New Housing Starts Prevention Officers.’ Who are they you might ask?

Police:  A new subdivision of 25 acres would be of police interest. A study would have to be done to see if there was a requirement for additional police units. This study would go to city council who would then look at the budget and conduct an economic assessment.

1. Fire Department as well as Ambulance Services would also make an assessment
2. Wildlife people would conduct an assessment on the wildfire in the area.
3. Drainage people need to extensively look at the plans and the site.
4. Then the plethora of  services including, Hydro, Gas, and Street lights placement.
5. Fire hydrant placement assessment
6. Local traffic studies to ascertain existing and anticipated traffic flows servicing the new development at all times of the day and night.
7. Assessment study of impact on Local Library.
8. Assessment of internet cable requirements from EACH of the main internet service providers.
9. Assessment of cable TV requirements.
10. Assessment of sidewalk placement.

Each one of these committees is in no rush to do what they need to do, to enable the builder to get started building houses. It appears that it is in their own interest to question everything and request further studies. Thereby making the delay even longer. Fifteen years ago, raw land would have been developed and finished within 1 year. Now it’s taking around 5 years.
The current Liberal / NDP solution to the crisis is to throw more inflationary non earned printed money at the problem to get residential construction moving. But guess what is happening? The millions of taxpayer dollars is paying for even more bureaucrats and not bricks. This is doing nothing to speed up building and alleviate the crisis Trudeau has created.

The cost to develop one 60-foot lot is approx. $185K. This would build a 1,400 square foot home. For 100 homes on this site, that would amount to $18.5 million. Then we have building permits to contend with. It cost $25,000 for a building permit to build the first house. When the builder applies for a building permit to build subsequent houses on the site, it’s still $25,000 per permit per house. Even if the building design plan is exactly the same as the first house. So, if a builder builds 100 identical houses, that’s another $2.5 million of expense that has to be recovered in the sale price. Then our builder needs $20,000 per house to deal with any warranty issues. There’s another $200,000 for the site. Formerly called The Ontario New Homes Warranty Program, this is now run by Tarion. Nearly every house will have warranty issues. The building inspectors will go out of their way to generate them. More often than not, it is a small warranty issue that any reputable quality builder would be happy to fix if the new homeowner called them. Just like in the old days. Then the builder would incur a fee of $2,000 per house for a City Engineer’s report where the trusses are longer than 28 Feet. That’s another $200,000. The homeowner could instruct their own engineer to provide a report privately, but the city would still charge their $2,000. We now have a grand total building development costs for this 25 acre site of $46,420,000

Most businesses borrow working capital for projects. There is no bank that would finance 100% of the development costs. 50% would be the maximum. That amount would be $ 23,210,000.

At current rates of say 7%, a $23,120,000 million loan to develop would require interest only payments of $1,624,700 per year or $135,391. per month. Of course, not all of this money would be needed by the builder on day one. He would be drawing on it as required for the next phase of the development throughout the whole 5 year term. With an incorporated company, any bank would require personal guarantees for that amount of loan, not just the limited liability that incorporation brings.
The effect of all this is that it is not conducive to emerging start up home building companies. Windsor-Tecumseh residential building permit numbers have been steadily decreasing:

Windsor
2021 1,766
2022 1,520
2023 unfinished data for year end

Tecumseh
2021 334
2022 300
2023 226

Nearby in Chatham, 2 years ago at its peak, approx. 350 building permits were issued. In 2023 year end, it was only 62.

Cast your mind back to the Canada of just 15 short years ago. Imagine a sub-contactor in the building industry then, let’s say he’s a first-class framer. He’s making good money, but he is entrepreneurial by nature and wants to buy some land and build houses. He could have very well taken that step forward from tradesman to developer. But not in today’s Canada. The capital involved and the gatekeepers red tape and bureaucracy make it prohibitive. Will we ever see those days again? Not under Trudeau we won’t, but almost certainly under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre we will.
As well as Pierre Poilievre’s common-sense solutions to the housing crisis explained in his video, Victor also proposes the following solutions, which he intends to take to Ottawa as your future MP for Windsor-Tecumseh.
That mortgage interest be tax deductible at an across the board rate of 15%. For their principal residence. That’s just for the interest portion, not the capital repayment portion.
That the mortgage interest tax deduction be at source to the mortgage payer for their principal residence. No need to include it on a tax return. The mortgage payer pays to their mortgage institution NET of the 15% interest deduction, and their mortgage institution claims the balance directly from the government.
This mortgage interest tax relief at source is only available for purchases for their principal residence and not refinancing.
That all mortgage borrowers for house purchase be offered the facility of paying interest only net of mortgage interest relief (15%) at source, whenever and for however long they choose. Thereby postponing the requirement for a capital repayment portion indefinitely.
That 100% of RRSP or RRIF funds can be withdrawn at any time tax free to purchase a home which is a principal residence (not just for a first time buyer) or to pay down a mortgage on a principal residence. These tax free RRSP withdrawals do not have to be repaid.

To conclude, Victor, after several board meetings with prominent local builders, believes that they would absolutely love to and are ready, willing and able to build starter homes for young first time buyers at a price of below $300,000. They could build hundreds of them. Unfortunately, builders under the current Liberal government cannot build new homes for a purchase price of much below $700,000.

A closing statement from Victor:

“I understand that your first home is not your dream home. But it is perhaps where a great deal of your lasting memories will be made. What I don’t have in mind for people who have done everything that has been asked of them, i.e. studied hard and got a good job, perhaps newlyweds who want to start a family, is a 1-bedroom apartment in a block costing over $2,000 per month. What I do want, is to see you in a proper house on the ground. It doesn’t have to have a finished basement or a 2 car garage, you can finish those things with your family and buddies and add value to your home in your own sweet time. But a driveway would be good, and a reasonable sized garden where on a sunny day you can sunbathe, firepit, entertain, play with your new baby or kick a ball around with your toddler. I believe as a Canadian this is your birthright. I also believe this is not asking for a lot. If the good people of Windsor-Tecumseh become members of the Conservative party right now (because time is running out) enabling them to select me in March 2024 as their candidate for the next federal election, then the electorate select me as their MP at the next election, this is the vision I have, not for me, but for you and yours.”