Manitoba PCs promise to waive land-transfer tax for 1st-time homebuyers

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives are promising to eliminate the land-transfer tax for first-time homebuyers if the party wins a third straight term in office.

Rochelle Squires,the PC incumbent for Riel, made the promise Wednesday on the lawn of a home up for sale in Meadowood, a neighbourhood in her south Winnipeg constituency.

Eliminating the tax for first-time homebuyerswould make it easier to purchase homes, said Squires. The land-transfer tax for the average detached single-family home isabout $5,700, she said.

Tories estimate the land-transfer tax brings in roughly $130 million to $140 million every year among all homebuyers, Squires said. Waiving it for first-time buyers would reduce provincial revenue by $35 million to $40 million a year, she added.

Squires noted former NDP premier Howard Pawley brought in the land-transfer tax in 1987, while Gary Doer's NDP government increased it in 2004.

"It was an NDP government that created the land-transfer tax, which is among the highest in Canada," she said, flanked by PC Burrows candidate Navraz Brar.

Tory Leader Heather Stefanson did not attend the announcement.

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Squires saidthe Progressive Conservatives will start waiving the transfer tax as soon as possible after the election, assuming they remain in power after the Oct. 3 election.

The Manitoba Real Estate Association said in a statement it is thrilled with the PC pledge.

"Manitoba is the only Prairie province to impose a land-transfer tax, making home ownership less affordable, especially for first-time and low-income buyers," president Chris Dudeck said in a statement.

Homebuyers cannot add the tax to their mortgages, forcing them to save up more money to buy a house, said real estate agent Dustin Lagasse,a PC supporter who attended the Squires announcement.

Speaking at a Wednesdaycampaign announcement of his own in Winnipeg's Crescentwoodneighbourhood, NDP Leader Wab Kinew called the PC pledge "another one of these back-of-the-envelope announcements" and chided Stefanson for not attending her own campaign pledge.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said in a statement the Tories' invocation of the Pawley and Doer governments "is yet another example of the PCs villainizing the NDP with short-term Band-Aids, and Manitobans are caught in the crossfire."

This is the second straight day the PCs announced a tax cut. The party is making affordability the theme of its re-election campaign, while the NDP focuses on health care.