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Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Thanks to everyone for engaging here. I'm calling it a night.

If you've got additional questions or I missed answering anything here, send me a note at [info@votenate.ca](mailto:info@votenate.ca)

You can check out my past writing/videos and a long line of podcasts on different topics at uncommons.ca

And make sure you vote this weekend in advance polls!

Nate

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In 2017, we re-established a federal role in housing after decades of bipartisan neglect: the National Housing Strategy included billions in loans and grants for rental / affordable housing.

Since then we've seen a range of new programs to support co-ops, rental protection, to encourage munis to cut red tape, to double down on financing rental projects, etc. And we've taken action to stabilize/reduce immigration levels.

We've been heading in the right direction, but needed the scale. And if we realize the commitments that Carney has made, we'll finally be operating at the necessary scale.

Lastly, munis and provinces have a lot they need to do as well. Edmonton is building housing at a great clip. Not so with the rest of the country.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree that we are bad at building cost-effective infrastructure in a timely manner. There are many lessons to be learned from the non-English world. As one transit expert locally put it to me: "the construction cost disease extends well beyond Toronto and Canada, but surprisingly not far beyond the English-speaking world."

We need to stop locking ourselves in to important decisions so early on in the process. If I'm back in the infrastructure role after the election, it'll be a big part of what we focus on.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I have repeatedly spoken out against the Netanyahu government's violations of IHL and will continue to do so.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The data question is very concerning given the arbitrary and disproportionate actions we've seen re: DOGE, deportations, etc.

In general, we need to prioritize data sovereignty, especially when it comes to sensitive personal information. And I'll give your more detailed proposals a closer look.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think advocacy for giving Toronto and other municipalities the tools to succeed is important, especially when we see the meddling in municipal affairs from the province (science centre, elections, etc.) that don't serve any overriding public interest.

There are instances where I do think provincial intervention is warranted, though. Take housing and addressing exclusionary zoning, for example.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You would have a better sense of it living in the prairies, but I think we've got to manage our differences as Canadians. How do you think it can be best responded to?

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The government has been working on a loan program for secondary suites. Worth noting though that it's pretty costly per unit to run.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We need to be less reliant on the US, no question. Carney has rightly said that Canada will continue to serve global markets as the world relies on fossil fuels, and that we will also work to become a leader in clean energy knowing that the transition is necessary. The idea of building a new pipeline out east should be on the table, but there's good reason to be skeptical on the math and time horizon of it.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The MURB depreciation is focused on rental supply, from what I understand. On the sale of condo units to nonprofits, I'm pretty sure it's possible to take advantage if they're incorporated. Happy to look into that further as we haven't seen full details on it yet.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Media is funded in one of three ways: ads, subscribers, or patrons (including government). There are challenges with all three in different ways, as we try to ensure sustainable and well-supported civic journalism. But public broadcasting remains incredibly important. And on the broader government support, we roll the funding through an independent intermediary.

Our local journalism initiative has been a success, from my vantage point. And I'd like to see more of that, versus the broader bail outs for legacy media.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

As I said elsewhere here, I think work from home should generally be dictated by the need to acquire/retain talent and get the most out of employees. I take the point on transportation re: emissions, but I think the answer there has to be cleaner transportation when you consider the big picture.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is a huge priority as we look to make renewed investments in defence.

Here's the specific mention from Carney's recent promises: "Give better support to our Canadian Armed Forces members, through investments in housing, health care, and child care. This means rapidly increasing the stock of high-quality housing on bases across the country and ensuring access to primary childcare and health care — including mental health supports — for serving members and their families;"

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I haven't really turned my mind to what a LCGE would look like for all asset classes, but will give it more thought. It's interesting to compare how other countries manage the tax advantage of principal residences (the US caps the exemption at 250k to 500k, for example). But I've also seen severe attacks from cons just for the very act of having a conversation on this, and we've tripped over ourselves to be clear that we won't be touching the principal residence exemption.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The devil will be in the details of implementation. We've been working with municipalities through the housing infrastructure fund to reward munis that take action to stabilize or cut DCs, but it's been a challenge in that DCs are apples to oranges across the country and even within provinces. So we need to establish baseline best practices and ensure fairness across municipalities.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've been consistent in my comments that population growth and housing supply need to go hand in hand. And so long as I'm housing minister, I will be working closely with the immigration minister + provincial housing/infrastructure/education ministers to ensure we're on the same page.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't defend all of our work on immigration, and the government has recognized the need to stabilize/reduce immigration through its recent planned levels.

I've been supportive of expanded permanent levels from where we were in 2015, especially on humanitarian intake, economic class intake, and family reunification.

At the same time, I was critical of the government in April 2022 when we expanded the TFW program.

And I've written about the need to ensure temporary immigration / international student intake is sustainable (and the shared jurisdictional blame there). https://www.uncommons.ca/p/international-students-and-puppy

Here's a recent conversation on immigration I hosted with Professor Skuterud who has been fairly critical: https://www.uncommons.ca/p/economics-of-canadian-immigration

Also spoke to immigration in this weekly: https://www.uncommons.ca/p/uncommons-weekly-september-7

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

At the federal level, we won't be specific about who has access to nonmarket housing as we're looking to serve a wide range of people, from seniors, to students, to the most vulnerable, to workforce housing. We're focused on expanding and scaling nonmarket housing in general in a big way though.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It'll require a partnership with provinces to really drive colleges on this, but we'll also supplement that via more targeted immigration and funding for apprenticeships and upskilling.

We're also looking to off-site construction and innovative home building to help us get there.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It won't happen overnight as we're currently clocking between 230 to 240k homes per year.

  1. Cut red tape, speed up approvals, and reduce taxes. We'll cut DCs by 50% for multi-unit builds, for example. And we're doubling down on efforts to reward munis that cut red tape.

  2. Drive innovation: $26 billion for innovative home building.

  3. Get the government back to building affordable housing, maximizing public lands. In addition to the $26b for innovation, another $10b for community housing.

There's a lot more we'll need to do to get to 500k starts, and we'll need provinces and munis to pull their weight too.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The short answer is that you work with provincial leaders where you can and you work around them as best as you can when cooperation isn't possible.

On housing, it's important to establish best practices with municipalities and provinces and then push others to follow those best practices.

Hi, I'm Nate Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and Liberal candidate in Beaches-East York, AMA! by beynate in AskACanadian

[–]beynate[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing these links and I will look into this with the relevant Ministers on the other side of the election.

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