Inflation taking toll on affordability for Albertans: Hunter

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

Canadians coast to coast are grappling with the effects of a significant housing shortage, which has corresponding trickle-down implications across the economy in areas like rising rents, inflation, homelessness and affordability challenges.

In Alberta, Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter is hoping that a potential transition in government federally will help alleviate some of the issues plaguing citizens.

“We’re building record numbers of homes. That’s something that’s kind of within our wheelhouse to do. One of the problems we face is inflationary, the high cost of building, and that is really on the federal side. And we’re hoping that (Pierre) Poilievre takes the reins and can address these issues because, quite frankly, the Liberals have done a terrible job.”

In a concession to the Trudeau Liberals, Hunter admits that laying all of the blame for inflationary pressures in Canada at the foot of the federal government is a post-pandemic argument that doesn’t really hold water. 

“There’s a couple of things that were maybe outside of the Liberals, the responsibility for the inflationary issues. Now, they pumped a whole lot of money into the economy, which created inflation, and then interest rates had to skyrocket. They always follow that way. Every government in the world was doing it, so to blame the Liberals – every government was doing it. So this is unfortunate, but now we’re starting to see that lesson. We’re starting to see those inflationary pressures start to go down. We should start to see products starting to decrease in costs as well, which should affect us being able to build houses faster and better or cheaper, because those inflationary pressures aren’t there.”

Hunter made limited reference to a series of initiatives the government is working on to help alleviate the housing crisis in Alberta, but didn’t elaborate with any details.

“So that’s kind of a macro issue. It’s not a micro issue, but it’s a macro issue that we’re trying to work through. And I think that as time goes on, we’ll start to see us be able to wrap it up even more. There are some things we can do, in my opinion, that will make it a whole lot easier, and I’m trying to work with the government in trying to be able to bring some of those things to fruition. I can’t speak about them right now, but I think that they will have a material effect. And stay tuned. If I can get the government to move on some of these files, I think that that will also help. Interest rates coming down will help inflation. Inflationary pressure starting to decrease will help and so building houses is important.”

One of the pressures on housing in the province has been immigration, and Hunter was frank about much of the blame pertaining to this file being placed squarely on Ottawa’s shoulders.

“Immigration, as you know, is a federal issue, and even the Liberals are saying we’ve messed this up. But to think about it, we’ve got people who do want to come to this country that go through the legal immigration process and they want to immigrate to Canada. Canada’s one of the best places in the world to live, but the federal government has let in so many asylum seekers that did not meet any of those criteria, that’s where they’ve gotten themselves into some struggles. And even the Liberals are now saying we’ve kind of messed this up.”