Carney taps Evan Siddall, critic of ‘glorified’ homeownership, for housing role
Siddall was once the CEO of the CMHC, where he pushed for the implementation of a home equity tax and questioned Canadians' "glorification" of home ownership.
Author: Quinn Patrick
Prime Minister Mark Carney has tapped Evan Siddall to be the inaugural chair of Build Canada Homes, someone who has stated that he’s wary of why Canadians have “glorified this idea of homeownership”
While serving as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s CEO, Siddall also spent $250,000 to study proposals to implement a home equity tax, a levy that would have taken major shares of proceeds when families sell their homes, leaving them with less to buy a new home or provide for retirement.
However, the pursuit was dropped after Blacklock’s Reporter made it public.
Build Canada Homes was a federal initiative launched last September to provide financial support, such as loans and contributions to various housing partners.
In 2021, Siddall resigned as chief of the CMHC. His departure came shortly after comments he made on a 2019 podcast resurfaced where he said, “We’ve glorified this idea of home ownership, haven’t we?”
When the podcast host said that home ownership had “become a driving source of inequality in Canada,” Siddall agreed, “For sure it has,” he said.
“The winners when house prices go down are people who want to get into the housing market,” said Siddall. “The losers are the people who have won so much already through the increase in house prices, the owners.”
Siddall’s efforts to research a home equity tax cost a total of $450,000 with promotion, resulting in a 2022 University of British Columbia report called Wealth And the Problems Of Housing Inequity Across Generations, which proposed a $5.8 billion annual tax on homes, complaining of “windfalls gained by many homeowners while they sleep and watch TV.”
However, public pushback made the Trudeau government walk back on the idea, with then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole calling the proposal “outrageous and out of touch.”
“The family home is a bedrock of Canadian family savings,” he said at the time.
Before his involvement with the CMHC, Siddall worked for BMO Capital Markets. He also worked at Goldman Sachs and Irving Oil.
According to a federal release, Siddall will exercise the board’s powers unilaterally until a process to appoint at least eight directors concludes.