To build a better housing market, stop taxing housing like cigarettes

The first thing governments need to do, collectively, is address the fact that housing is taxed at double the rate of the rest of the economy. Sin-taxing housing drives down the rate of homebuilding, just as cigarette taxes have driven down smoking rates.

Grand old row houses pictured along Queen Elizabeth Drive in Ottawa. Canada’s new housing minister has an opportunity to challenge the provinces to get tough on housing taxes, and make lowering them a condition for federal funding of local infrastructure, writes Mark Kenney. The Hill Times photograph by Kate Malloy

Opinion

BY MARK KENNEY

July 25, 2025

Canadian leaders in the purpose-built rental market were pleased by the ambition of the Liberals’ 2025 election platform, but with trepidation that the government is missing the forest for the trees when it comes to getting the housing we need built at prices Canadians an...

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