After eight years of Justin Trudeau, the cost of housing has spiralled out of control. Canadians are forced to choose between paying rent and putting groceries on the table, but Trudeau and his incompetent housing minister are more interested in photo ops instead of building homes Canadians can actually live in.

Today, Statistics Canada confirmed this when they published their report on Investment in Building Construction. Investment in residential construction is down 13.85% from the previous year. Investment in single-dwelling construction is down 19.42% from the previous year. Trudeau simply isn’t building the homes that Canadians need.

According to a recent study conducted by Rentseeker, the cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Canada’s top ten cities has reached $1,902 per month, up from $973 per month in 2015 when Trudeau was first elected. For a two-bedroom apartment, the cost of rent in Canada’s largest ten cities has reached $2,359, up from $1,172 in 2015. Nobody can afford this.

Thanks to spiralling housing costs, Canadians are anxious about their financial future. According to a Habitat for Humanity survey, 61% of young Canadians aged 18-34 are concerned about their ability to pay their mortgage or rent over the next 12 months. As a consequence of out-of-control inflation and higher interest rates, four in ten Canadians are concerned about their ability to pay their rent or mortgage over the next year.

Because of the massive cost of housing, 49% of Canadians are spending 50% or more of their household income on housing costs, while 58% are worried about sacrificing basic needs like food, living essentials, clothing, and education in order to afford their rent or mortgage payments. This is unsustainable.

Canada is currently building fewer homes than we built in the 1970’s. In London, Ontario, where Trudeau’s incompetent housing minister gave the municipality $74 million to build homes, housing starts are down 46% from the previous year.

This is why Pierre Poilievre introduced his Building Homes, Not Bureaucracy Act, to reward cities that bring homes Canadians can afford, and withhold funds from cities that continue to stand in the way of development with NIMBY policies.

Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring the solutions that Canadians need by bringing homes that they can actually afford.