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.

  • HonoredMuleEnglish
    1·
    19 hours ago

    Shouldn’t it be a big tax on the sale of houses to multi-property owners? They’re the ones to discourage, not the people reducing their real estate portfolio.

    • merc@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      17 hours ago

      Good point. I was just thinking of taxing the transaction, but you’re right that if a multi-property owner wants to slim down to just the house they live in, they shouldn’t be taxed for doing that.

      • HonoredMuleEnglish
        2·
        16 hours ago

        I figured it was loose grammar rather than explicit intent, but my inner pedant hates relying on assumptions. 🙂