Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says “all options are on the table” as Premier Doug Ford continues his public push to expand a homebuyers tax credit in an effort to revive Ontario’s sluggish housing market.
As part of its fall economic statement, the Ford government announced it had earmarked $470 million to give a harmonized sales tax break to first-time homebuyers purchasing new properties – mirroring a policy by the federal government.
The discount was calculated to be up to roughly $80,000 on homes valued at under $1 million, and $160,000 when the federal discount is also applied.
Only a few months after introducing the policy, however, the premier says the policy appears to have failed — something he said he had warned would happen.
“I have always been an advocate of getting rid of the HST for everyone,” he said at an unrelated event on Wednesday.
“We did it for first-time homebuyers, but obviously that didn’t move the needle, which I predicted it wouldn’t move the needle. Let’s open it up to anyone who wants to buy a new home.”
The comments are the latest in a series of doubtful statements the premier has made about the tax credit, along with mild criticism of his finance minister’s unwillingness to move on the issue.
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Development industry sources told Global News the government had indicated to them that waiving tax for all new homes could cost the treasury $2 billion, substantially more than the $470 million for limiting it to first-time homebuyers.
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Asked about the premier’s latest comments, Bethlenfalvy appeared somewhat firm, but said he would be willing to rewrite the policy if the federal government took the same step.
“It’s a shared responsibility where if we move provincially, municipally and federally together, we’ll achieve more,” Bethlenfalvy said at an unrelated news conference.
While the finance minister wouldn’t commit to change, he said all options remain available to the government, including looking at “out-of-the-box ideas.”
In a speech to the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference in Toronto, Housing Minister Rob Flack said the province would be working on yet another suite of measures to boost housing in the province.
Flack said the government would introduce new policies and legislation to “further reduce development charges” using what he called innovative infrastructure funding models, such as publicly owned municipal service providers.”
The minister also said the government will support modular, factory-built homes and “other innovative forms of housing construction” to boost homebuilding numbers.
The new comments came as new data shows that housing starts in Ontario are at their worst-ever level since Ford won an election promising to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.
The slump in housing starts – 62,561 in 2025 – and lack of sales have led to warnings that roughly 100,000 construction sector jobs could be impacted by the lack of development.
“Right now, we’re seeing two massive infernos,” Ford said of the low building volumes and associated job losses.
The finance minister said the potential job impacts are also “on our radar” as he looks at how to salvage the home construction industry.
“We want to support the housing sector. We want to support the trades and the construction jobs,” Bethlenfalvy said.
“We want to be mindful that if we don’t have investment, then we won’t see housing starts in three, four, five years. It takes that long to plan projects.”
The provincial budget is expected to be tabled in late March.
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