Federal Budget: Red Deer pleased with housing and carbon capture initiatives

“Housing remains the gateway to community building, it remains a gateway to security,” said Mayor Johnston.

The federal government acknowledged in their budget the low supply of housing in the country, with a goal to double the current construction of 200,000 housing units per year.

Mayor Johnston said the city of Red Deer is no different to this trend.

“We’re seeing some of the blind budding and bidding overprice on homes,” he said. “We have a very pronounced gap of about 150 permanent supportive housing units.”

READ: Supply issue: Local real estate industry reacts to federal budget

Specifically for municipalities, the budget attempts to address the shortage in affordable housing by allocating $4 billion over the next five years to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to launch a new Housing Accelerator Fund, with the goal of creating 100,000 new housing units overall.

Although he doesn’t know yet exactly what portion the city will receive, he says he plans on getting a head start with administration and the Safe & Healthy Communities department on how to best maximize the use of new funding.

Pointing to the city’s current homelessness crisis, strain on temporary shelters and search for a permanent shelter site, he stressed the importance of affordable housing.

“It’s so vital that we create the housing supports underneath people so that shelters are essentially driven out of business because there’s not a need for them. That might be utopian, frankly, but it is aspirational,” said the mayor.

The federal budget’s extension of the Rapid Housing Initiative for those at risk of homelessness is set to allocate $1.5 billion over two years to the CMHC and expected to create 6,000 units, with at least one quarter reserved for women-focused housing projects.

On a more personal note, the budget proposes a Tax-Free First Home Savings Account for first-time buyers, similar to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), to save up to $40,000 and a doubling of the current tax credit to $10,000.

“That brings me back to the mid-70s when they first brought in the Registered Home Ownership Savings Plan. I was just a 20-year-old in those days and I took full advantage of it so I really hope people get on to this fund and subscribe,” said Mayor Johnston.

Acknowledging that inflation still poses a challenge to housing prices with supply chain issues and labor shortages, he says he hopes the federal budget’s initiatives can help level the playing field.

Heading to the Canadian Hydrogen Convention in just a few weeks, the mayor said he was particularly pleased with the budget’s benefits on carbon capture initiatives, an industry opportunity for the City of Red Deer.

READ: First in-person luncheon for Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce

“They’re job creators, they’re ways to get the private sector incentivized, and geographically we remain the best place in Alberta for carbon capture,” he said.

The budget consists of a $319 million investment to spur the development of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. As well, various refundable tax credits will be made available to businesses that incur eligible CCUS expenses to permanently store CO2.

Finally, the City has had to reduce its public transit services as a result of the pandemic. The budget takes note of the Canada Community Building-Fund, which allocates $2 billion annually for local priorities. The mayor confirmed that the City should be receiving approximately $6 million in 2023 for this purpose.

by Alessia Proietti and Sheldon Spackman

Federal Budget: Red Deer pleased with housing and carbon capture initiatives

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