Statement on behalf of the Honourable Rob Lantz, Minister of Housing, Land and Communities

Today, Friday, September 15, 2023, the Honourable Rob Lantz, Minister of Housing, Land and Communities released the following statement:

"When I recently met with Minister Fraser, I stressed the need for the federal government to launch immediate supports to help expedite housing starts and to reduce the costs of new builds across the country. I encouraged the federal Minister to ensure that any new initiatives should be able to complement provincial programs that already exist.

Specifically, on PEI, we have programs like the Housing Challenge Fund, the Affordable Housing Development Fund, and the Residential Unit Development Incentive. I encouraged Minister Fraser to ensure that any future programs should work with these programs, not against.

The initiatives launched by the Government of Canada yesterday to remove the GST on purpose-built rental units is a positive step forward; and one that as a province we support. I am happy to see that Minister Fraser is listening to the provinces and taking action.

As a province, we hope to take this initiative a step further by looking at a complementary program to remove the provincial portion of HST on new rental builds, similar to what many of my provincial colleagues are doing.

In the coming days, I will be meeting with my cabinet colleagues to discuss next steps on this and any other complementary programs we can do on top of this initiative to further encourage new builds in Prince Edward Island."

Media contacts:

April Gallant
Department of Housing, Land and Communities
[email protected]