Building more rental housing, providing relief to small business owners and driving down the cost of groceries

Oct 13, 2023

Yasir Naqvi
MP Ottawa Centre

613-946-8682 | Email

The rising cost of living has made it difficult for many young Canadians and families to make ends meet. That’s why our federal government is continuing to deliver real results that make life more affordable and give people a real and fair chance of success. This fall, my colleagues and I are back in the House of Commons to build on the measures we have put in place, to make life more affordable for Ottawa Centre residents and all Canadians.

To support students across the country, we permanently eliminated interest on Canada Student and Apprentice Loans, we doubled Canada Student Grants, and we have worked tirelessly to make it easier for young Canadians to access new training and work opportunities. This year alone, our Canada Summer Jobs program filled more than 70,000 positions across Canada – including 335 jobs in Ottawa Centre! These jobs with small businesses, non-profits and local governments provide hands-on work experience for young people, helping them put money in their pockets and gain new skills that can lead to full-time jobs in the future.

This summer, parents in nearly half of Canadian provinces and territories are already benefiting from $10-a-day childcare – three years ahead of schedule. In all other jurisdictions, childcare fees have been cut by at least 50 per cent. And we are creating an additional 250,000 childcare spaces across the country.

Most recently, on September 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a suite of new measures to support the middle class and people working hard to join it. This includes action to build more rental housing, provide relief to small business owners and drive down the cost of groceries.

To continue taking urgent action to drive down the cost of housing across the country, including for renters, the federal government:

will incentivize the construction of much-needed rental homes by introducing legislation to remove the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the construction of new apartment buildings for renters.
is calling on provinces that currently apply provincial sales taxes or the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to rental housing to join us by matching our rebate for new rental housing.
will require local governments to end exclusionary zoning and encourage building apartments near public transit in order to have their Housing Accelerator Fund applications approved.

To support small business owners and their workers, the government:

will make changes to the Canada Emergency Business Account program, a pandemic measure that helped small businesses stay afloat, including by extending the term loan repayment deadline by one year.

To address the escalating price of groceries for people, the government:

is calling for major grocery store chains to stabilize grocery prices in the near term. In recent years, large grocers have been making more money, all while the cost of groceries has risen drastically and families are struggling to put food on their tables.
To address this, the leaders of the largest grocery chains in Canada have been called to an immediate meeting in Ottawa to begin discussions toward this goal.

Last summer, during a period of the highest inflation in a generation, we acted fast to deliver relief to those who needed it most. As global inflation and the cost of housing continue to impact Canadians, we are continuing to take real action to make life more affordable and build an economy that works for everyone.

If you have any questions on these measures or need assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to my office at 613-946-8682 or Yasir.Naqvi@parl.gc.ca. My team and I are here to help.