Robertson had earlier indicated elimination of GST on new homes could expand to other provinces
Housing minister Gregor Robertson’s office issued a correction this week after he told Global News that Ottawa was in active negotiations with provinces to cut the Goods and Services Tax on new homes – a claim his communications director later said was inaccurate.
Robertson said in an interview on Tuesday that the federal government was “in discussions with all of the provinces and territories about taking down the GST for one year on new home purchases.”
After the interview was published, Robertson’s office contacted Global News to retract the minister’s remarks.
“To provide a correction to the Minister’s comment: as per the legislation, Bill C-26, An Act to authorize certain payments to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purpose of improving housing supply, we are actually in talks on a variety of measures that will improve housing supply, not limited to a GST cut,” Robertson’s director of communications, Mohammad Hussain, told Global News.
The correction does not clarify what Robertson meant to say, nor does it explain the discrepancy between his original remarks and Hussain’s statement.
Push to improve housing affordability
The episode comes amid a broader federal push to improve housing affordability through tax relief and infrastructure investment. On March 30, prime minister Mark Carney and Ontario premier Doug Ford announced a partnership that would remove the full 13% of the HST on new homes in Ontario valued at up to $1 million, with the measure saving buyers up to $130,000.
As part of the same agreement, the federal government and Ontario committed to cost-matching $8.8 billion over 10 years to fund housing-enabling infrastructure projects, which would support a reduction of municipal development charges by up to 50%. Development charges are municipal fees used to fund infrastructure such as roads and sewers for new subdivisions.
The tax relief measure took effect on April 1, 2026, and is set to expire on March 31, 2027.
David Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, said he anticipates the changes will “double the starts we are seeing” over the next several years, noting that “this industry had stalled” and that homes were “selling at 85% of the rate” seen over the previous decade, BNN Bloomberg reported.
Bill C-26 was introduced on March 26, 2026, and authorizes a one-time total payment of $1.713 billion to be distributed to the provinces and territories.
