Roundup: Blaming Trudeau for rent hikes

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The Conservatives put out a press release yesterday decrying just how much rent has increased across the country. The problem? Landlord-tenant legislation is a provincial issue, and most of the premiers have resisted rent controls or price caps, mostly for ideological reasons. If indeed rent controls stifle new construction, well, removing them hasn’t spurred it either.

If this is about the market, the federal government hasn’t been in the business of building rental housing since the eighties, and I have seen zero indication that Poilievre would want to get back into that particular line of work. Worse, his release falsely calls the CMHC “Trudeau’s own,” which is a gross mischaracterisation of an arm’s-length Crown corporation that the federal government doesn’t dictate operations to. (This is a rhetorical device Poilievre has been employing a lot, which nobody ever calls him out on either, and that’s a problem). In fact, the government’s decision to remove the GST on purpose-built rentals has given more indications that this will spur development more than any other action so far, but of course, those will take time, which Poilievre is also dismissing with his shtick about people not being able to live in photo-ops.

There has also been the line that this goes back to government spending allegedly raising inflation (false), and that that has raised interest rates, which is what is driving up rental prices, but again, that’s not actually Trudeau’s doing given the global issues with inflation and raising rates to tame it. But Poilievre and his minions would prefer to lie about everything in order to make people angry, because that’s the goal. Facts don’t matter, and that’s a problem for everyone.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Recent Russian air strikes have been focused on Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, however the threat to attacks on energy infrastructure remains high. Ukraine is taking credit for destroying a Russian surveillance plane and an airborne command post. Ukraine’s ground forces commander confirms they are now engaged in “active defence,” but doesn’t rule out further counter-offensive operations. Switzerland has agreed to host a global peace summit at the request of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Good reads:

  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided that, contrary to protocol, Ed Broadbent will receive a state funeral (in spite of never being a PM, GG, or minister).
  • Sean Fraser met with his Atlantic counterparts to look at ways of boosting housing, including manufacturing components for pre-assembly.
  • Federal carbon rebates went out over the weekend, and a lot of people still don’t believe that it happens (in part because of the government’s comms incompetence).
  • Some immigration lawyers are calling the questions for Gazans coming to Canada grossly invasive, while others say they are grossly insufficient to stop bad actors.
  • The Commons’ ethics committee is being recalled to discuss the prime minister’s vacation (which is the same one he had last year), because of course.
  • Unsurprisingly,  a number of Liberal MPs in Toronto are fuming about mayor Olivia Chow’s attempt to blackmail the federal government.
  • There is a shuffle in the NDP’s senior staff ranks.
  • Courts in Nova Scotia have ruled that lockdowns in provincial jails because of staff shortages are illegal and violate the rights of inmates.
  • Child care providers in Ontario say they are at risk of shutting down unless the fee structure is changed, while the provincial government wants more federal cash.
  • As you might expect, there is a lot of blame being thrown around for the precarious electricity situation in Alberta.

Odds and Ends:

For National Magazine, I have a preview of the winter session with a rundown of the Order Paper and every government bill on it.

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at the legal fictions Scott Moe is trying to use to cover for not remitting the federal carbon levy.

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