In Edmonton, Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that his government will eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1 million for first-time homebuyers. The prime minister also highlights another announcement he made earlier the day, committing $187 million to help Jasper rebuild after the 2024 wildfires. Responding to questions from reporters, Carney comments on his meeting earlier in the day with Alberta Danielle Smith and is asked about his commitment to building new pipelines to get energy to new markets. The prime minister is also a faces questions on the impact of U.S. tariffs on Alberta’s energy sector. (March 20, 2025)

First time home buyers will not be charged GST (5%) when buying a home, as long as the place they’re buying costs less than $1M. This means that people buying a home for the first time will save up to $50k on their purchase.

Edit: Note, GST is mostly only charged when buying newly built homes, so this won’t have any effect for people buying used homes.

  • merc@sh.itjust.worksOP
    4·
    1 day ago

    Sure, I get what you’re saying. But, from a practical point of view, older people vote, so the government isn’t likely to want to piss them off.

    I just think this is realistically going to take decades to fix. We need to get back to thinking of housing as a boring expense, not a huge investment. That’s going to take a long time to unwind.