Weeks after the 2025 federal election, newly-sworn in Housing Minister Gregor Robertson was asked if he thought housing prices needed to come down:
Q: Housing prices went up in Vancouver when you were mayor, I want to ask you why do you feel like you have the skills necessary to do this when you saw 179% increase in Vancouver housing prices?
Yeah, we’ve seen increases like that across Canada over the past decade certainly since my time as mayor we’ve seen a lot more movement here in Ottawa and we’ve got great programs starting to work now. Housing accelerator program is partnering with cities to deliver. I’m here to leverage my history as a mayor. I know what works on the ground. I wasn’t getting the help I needed from the federal government when I was mayor or the provincial government of all stripes.
We need – as a government in Ottawa – to be delivering Ottawa to be delivering and partnering with cities and provinces all together and making sure we’re building enough supply and that the federal government is focused on affordable housing.
Q: Do you think home prices need to go down?
No, I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. It’s a huge part of our economy.
We need to be delivering more affordable housing. The Government of Canada has not been building affordable housing since the ’90s and we’ve created a huge shortage across Canada
The question I answered was about reducing the price of a family’s current home, which for most Canadians, is their most valuable asset. The question wasn’t “should homes be more affordable?” Of course they should. Vancouver led the country on co-ops, rental-only zoning,
Housing Minister Gregor Robinson on X
