Draft – Petition: Federal Minister Ahmed Hussen Needs to Apologize to All Canadians

​Folks, as we discussed yesterday, we should start a petition and ask Federal Minister Ahmed Hussen to apologize for what he said about Canada housing. (this – https://ift.tt/3sJ0WuG come up with a draft version of the petition – leave your comments or suggestions below or edit directly on Google docs ! (link below)After we finalize the petition, we will start something similar to what we did before (https://www.change.org/p/recognize-the-housing-affordability-crisis-in-canada?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=00a14c50-82e3-11eb-a198-9f0aaef485b2)​Mods please pin this to the top:/u/longslowclap/u/Jefe1990/u/mrshawarma​—————————— DRAFT BEGINS HEREFederal Minister Ahmed Hussen Needs to Apologize to All Canadians for His Comments on Canada HousingCanada’s housing market is on fire again. And this time, it is not only limited to big metropolitan centers, but also small towns and cities such as Hamilton and Moncton. Many are expressing concerns of unsustainable price growth and speculation, and have warned about potential risks. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]However, in an interview with CBC about the housing issue, Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and the Minister responsible for CMHC – Mr. Ahmed Hussen says he believes home ownership is “still within reach for many Canadians and in the majority parts of the country.” And “It is also fine to live in a rental unit and that’s OK as well. There’s nothing wrong with that.”Such comments are astonishingly tone deaf to say the least. A National Bank of Canada report shows that saving for a down payment for a Canadian home has never been worse [8]. And young families often find themselves trapped in bidding wars, with their first home more and more out of reach, even in small towns and cities [9] [10]. However, Mr. Ahmed Hussen seems to be totally unaware of this situation, which could signal that the political elites in Ottawa are now completely out of touch from the people they’re supposed to represent. Or, he could be well informed of such a situation, but still chose to say what he said. Either way, this would potentially result in a huge negative impact on the credibility of the current government.Renting is fine if and only if renting versus owning is just a choice of lifestyle. However, that is far from the truth. In Canada, the capital gain from people’s primary residence is tax free, and that has made primary residence the most important investment an everyday Canadian can have in their lifetime. The COVID shock and government’s Quantitative Easing program have led to a steep appreciation in asset value. Based on a report from BNNBloomberg, in the pandemic economic downturn that has caused 3 million Canadians to lose their jobs, Canada’s national household net worth has surprisingly jumped by more than $600 billion, and the main contributor is the value of land and residential structures held by households [11]. This has created an enormous widening wealth gap between people who own housing and people who don’t. As the Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, rather than trying to solve the inequality issue, Mr. Ahmed Hussen’s comments seem to be trying to legitimize the existing wealth gap and encourage people at a disadvantage to simply accept the status quo.As the Minister responsible for CMHC, Mr. Ahmed Hussen’s comments would clearly be well received by market participants and possibly be further interpreted. This may be seen as a form of “government endorsement” or even “government encouragement” to the current price growth, which has been viewed as “exuberant” and “unsustainable” by many sources [12][13][14]. It could pose as a potential risk to further fuel market sentiment and lead to unexpected consequences.Therefore, we demand Mr. Ahmed Hussen to come forward and present a detailed explanation of why he said what he said, and publicly apologize to all Canadians for his imprudent comments.​Complete draft with Google docs link:https://ift.tt/2Od60Zx via /r/canadahousing https://ift.tt/3ufshW2