West End Home Builders' Association

Development Charges: WE HBA strongly supports the Development Charges Reduction Program and is specifically supporting the City of Hamilton and City of Burlington applications to the Ontario Government The WE HBA supports indexing the GST New Home Rebate. The existing GST new home rebate thresholds of $350k and $450k were put in place in the early 1990s when the GST was implemented and have not been adjusted since then. Given housing price escalation over the past 3 decades - these GST thresholds should be adjusted to reflect current new home prices. Options include removing altogether or setting a higher single threshold of for example $1 million, $1.3 million or more. It is WE HBA's position that the threshold should be for all new home purchasers and not restricted only to first time purchasers. WE HBA supports the one year GST/HST relief package between the Ontario and Federal Governments. Stress Test: We support federal changes to fix the stress test by eliminating the stress test on uninsured mortgages and to adjust to make it dynamic on insured mortgages WE HBA is supportive of the introduction of legislation to enhance the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Rental Rebate on new purpose-built rental housing, to incentivize construction of much-needed rental homes for Canadians. The WE HBA supports federal funding for the Hamilton LRT. Currently the provincial government has dedicated $1 billion towards the construction of the Hamilton LRT. The WE HBA would be supportive of the federal government also contributing to the construction of this critical piece of transportation infrastructure. The WE HBA supports aspects of the National Housing Strategy. We support additional funding for affordable housing and enabling partnerships with the private sector. We support the utilization of government surplus lands for affordable housing and retrofitting existing aging housing stock. The WE HBA supports a national Home Renovation Tax Credit. In 2009 as part of the Economic Action Plan a 1 year HRTC was implemented to support economic recovery from the financial crisis. WE HBA is advocating for a similar program as part of post pandemic recovery. The WE HBA is supportive of the Housing Accelerator Fund which provides incentive funding to local governments encouraging initiatives aimed at increasing housing supply. It also supports the development of complete, low-carbon and climate-resilient communities that are affordable, inclusive, equitable and diverse.