N.S. NDP leader shares details on promise to build 30,000 homes, how she'll make life more affordable

Nova Scotia New Democratic Party Leader Claudia Chender says, if elected in the upcoming provincial election, her first act as premier would be to ensure housing is on the agenda.

“I think this is a place where this government has just fallen down. We have people being priced out of their homes every single day, we have no vacancy, we’re not building fast enough and we’re not building things that people can actually afford,” said Chender during an interview with CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Tuesday.

Housing

As part of the NDP’s election platform, Chender is promising to build 30,000 new affordable rental homes by 2028.

“We’ve seen all the same studies that the government has seen and that all the other members have seen, and so we need more like 70,000 to 80,000 units,” she said.

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However, some are questioning how that goal is possible when it comes to getting enough people to do the work.

“We would get it built in a combination of ways,” said Chender. “We don’t get it built by saying, ‘The answer is to build.’ We actually have to have policies and plans to do it. So, this government has said, ‘Let’s let the market deal with this. Let’s let the private sector fix it for us,’ and it hasn’t worked.”

Chender says her plan is to incentivize building houses that are actually affordable.

“And there’s lots of ways to do that in terms of supporting co-ops and non-profits. But there’s also lots of ways to do that with innovative construction-like materials,” she said.

“So, we know in Dartmouth, in True North crescent – which is a project by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia – they used flat-pack modular construction. Those panels that become those homes get built in a factory, in a warehouse, they can build all year long, they need fewer bodies to build them. Because we know as you say, that’s a big issue, and they’re affordable and they’re efficient. And that’s the kind of innovation that we need in our housing sector and we need government to step in and help that to happen.”

Another promise made by the NDP is to lower the rent cap to 2.5 per cent – down from five per cent – if elected. Chender says her government would also close the fixed-term lease “loophole.”

“And what that means is that right now, we have a rent cap that’s five per cent, and yet rents are going up so much faster than that because you don’t need to use the rent cap if you only sign one-year leases,” Chender said.

“So, anyone looking for an apartment right now is only going to find a one-year lease, is only going to find that fixed-term lease. That is what is allowing our prices to skyrocket out of control and we would put an end to it.”

Affordability

Affordability is top of mind for many Nova Scotians. It was reported Tuesday that Canada’s annual inflation rate accelerated more than expected for the month of October to two per cent.

Although Chender’s opponents are promising to cut the province’s HST, an NDP government plans to take a more targeted approach by cutting the HST from everyday essentials like groceries, phone and internet bills and heating costs – a promise that would cost the province $172 million annually in taxpayer dollars.

She says her approach is better because “it helps people more.”

“The reality is, is that if we take a penny off every dollar or two pennies off of every dollar, that's not going to make a huge difference at the end of the month or the end of the year unless you're spending a lot of money,” explained Chender.

“Everybody has a cellphone, pretty much – I would say 97 per cent of people in Nova Scotia have a cellphone. Everybody has to pay for internet if they want to communicate, particularly where there's no cell coverage. This is a thing across our province, as we know. Everybody buys food. So, we're saying, let's take all the tax off those things that people actually need every day. We're hitting everybody. We're saving everybody money, but the people who need those savings the most are captured in a way that a blanket one or two cents isn't going to do.”

Chender also proposes to provide a “gas tax holiday” that she says would cut the provincial tax on gas while inflation is high and would save people 15.5 cents per litre at the pumps.

As far as what price gas would need to be for the tax to be added back on, Chender says her party doesn’t yet have a firm number on that.

“I think the point is that it is so expensive right now to get from ‘A’ to ‘B,’ and it's not just families … It's also people who have long commutes who have been called back into the office,” she said. “It's also businesses and small businesses who need to get their goods around this province. So, we need to find a way to make that affordable. That's something that the Houston government has talked a lot about and they've done nothing.”

Chender says the NDP would also work to build up the province’s transit system.

“Let's make sure that people have alternatives, and when people have those alternatives and inflation comes down, then we can have a situation where people don't have to rely on their cars and the expensive gas to fuel.”

On the campaign trail, Chender has visited the province’s South Shore, the Annapolis Valley, and she’s headed to Cape Breton late this week. She says no matter where she’s campaigning, she continues to hear the same message from residents.

“They are all telling me the same thing. Housing is too expensive, costs are too high, and I still don't have attachment to a family doctor or doctor clinic,” she said. “So, this is a government that likes to pit urban against rural, but actually, we're all Nova Scotians. We all have the same issues, and we're seeing people who are really excited about the way that we're proposing to deal with these issues from one end of the province to the other.”

Chender, along with Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston and Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, will all take part in CTV Atlantic’s roundtable discussion on Thursday, which can be watched on CTV and CTV2, or online at atlantic.ctvnews.ca from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

As part of this roundtable discussion, Battis will include questions provided by viewers. If you’d like your question to be considered, submit it here.

Nova Scotians head to the polls on Nov. 26.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.