3 questions for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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MoneySense sister publication Maclean’s will broadcast its year-end interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday in front of a live audience. (See how you can tune in.)

The PM will take questions from journalists Paul Wells (Maclean’s), Rachel Giese (Chatelaine) and Alec Castonguay (L’actualité) as well as from average Canadians via social media (#MacTownHall) and the form below. Neither Trudeau nor his staff will see any of the questions in advance.

Given the chance, here are the questions we MoneySense editors would ask Trudeau on the topics of retirement savings and housing affordability. What do you think of our questions? Are there other personal finance questions you’d ask?

1) Prime Minister, you’ve promised to enhance the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and there’s a lot riding on the details. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has said she would shelve the forthcoming Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) if the CPP is adequately strengthened. Meanwhile, workers across the country will presumably take home less pay under the new regime despite the absence of a single, credible study that suggests a retirement savings challenge even exists among low and lower middle-class Canadians. So, MoneySense’s question is two-fold: Why do you think an enhanced CPP is necessary and which specific changes is your administration considering?

2) Your government recently increased the minimum downpayment on home values over $500,000 to 10%. Which other specific policy levers—mortgage lending rules, increased access to the Home Buyers’ Plan, taxes or restrictions on real estate investments by foreigners—is your government considering using in order to help average Canadians achieve their dream of home ownership?

3) Over the years the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) has failed to keep pace with rising home values. Since its introduction in 1992, there has only been one increase to the HBP withdrawal limit—when it rose from $20,000 to $25,000 in 2009. And yet, during that same time period housing costs actually more than doubled. By August 2015, the average home price in Canada jumped to $433,367—a 189% increase from 1992 prices. The Conservatives’ plan to Increase the HBP limit from $25,000 to $35,000 would have mitigated against the erosion of home buying power for the average Canadian household. Is this something the Liberal government will consider?

Have your own question for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?

Leave your question in the Google form below, send it on Twitter using the hashtag #MacTownHall, or on the Maclean’s Facebook page.