The Next Liberal Tax May Be on the Roof Over Your Head

There’s a hard truth that Canadians need to wake up to, especially homeowners: the government is broke.

The numbers don’t lie. Federal debt has more than doubled since 2015, climbing past $1.2 trillion. Interest payments on that debt are now larger than what Ottawa spends on health care transfers to the provinces. They’ve run out of room to borrow without consequences. They’ve run out of excuses. And now, they’re running out of people to tax—except you.

If you own a home, particularly if it’s paid off, congratulations. You’re about to become the government’s next target.

For years, Liberal governments have hunted for new revenue sources. First, it was high-income earners. Then it was small businesses. Then it was emissions. And now, they’ve found the motherlode: home equity.

The combined equity in Canadian homes—what people actually own after mortgages—is worth trillions. That’s not a typo. Trillions. This wealth wasn’t handed out. It wasn’t generated by government programs. It was built by Canadians who worked overtime, cut spending, and took risks to buy property and maintain it.

But when politicians see numbers that big, they don’t think about personal sacrifice. They see opportunity. They see a pot of money they didn’t earn but can tap, spin, and reframe as a “solution” to national problems. Especially now, with new programs promised and no fiscal discipline in sight.

That brings us to Mark Carney.

Carney isn’t the face of some new centrist revival. He’s a polished version of the same Liberal machine that brought you exploding deficits, carbon taxes, and economic drift. His priorities remain aligned with the party’s true agenda: wealth redistribution at any cost, dressed up in the language of “climate action” and “fairness.”

And let’s not kid ourselves—home equity taxes are not a conspiracy theory. They’ve been studied repeatedly by the government’s own institutions.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, fully backed by the federal government, funded research into taxing the equity in people’s primary homes. They didn’t do it once. They’ve done it several times. Each time it leaked, they denied it. Each time public outrage died down, they resumed.

Their go-to advisor? A man who refers to homeowners as “lottery winners.” That’s the worldview now circulating in Ottawa—that if you managed to own a home in Canada, it wasn’t because you saved or worked hard. It was blind luck. And lucky people, in their minds, should be taxed.

That’s the groundwork being laid. Not for fun. Not for sport. Out of necessity.

Because the federal government is out of cash, and unlike businesses that cut expenses, they only know how to solve problems one way: take more.

They tried to soften you up with the carbon tax. That didn’t work. They said it was about saving the environment, but it was always about revenue. And now that the public has turned on it, they’re preparing the next move. This time, it won’t hit you at the pump. It’ll hit you in your living room.

Think about it: what other untapped assets exist in Canada large enough to fund government bloat? You can’t raise income taxes much higher without political suicide. Business investment is already fleeing the country. Consumption taxes? Unlikely, with inflation where it is. That leaves one thing: housing.

And it won’t start with some big, obvious policy. It’ll be introduced as a “modest” measure. A surcharge. A fairness tax. A generational equity contribution. Something vague and palatable. Framed as a one-time thing. A drop in the bucket. But once they open that door, it won’t close.

You’ll hear claims that it will only affect wealthy Canadians. That it’s just for homes above a certain threshold. That retirees will be protected. Don’t believe it. The same promises were made about income tax brackets and capital gains exemptions. How long did those promises hold?

We’ve already seen the groundwork in the form of new tax form questions about your primary residence. For decades, the sale of a primary home wasn’t tracked. Now, every sale has to be reported—even when it’s exempt from tax. Why track something they supposedly have no plans to tax?

Because they plan to.

It’s not enough to say “it could happen.” The better question is: why wouldn’t it? What is stopping a desperate government, led by an economist-turned-politician, from targeting the largest asset pool in the country?

If the Liberals retain power, with Carney at the helm or not, they will need cash fast. Their only option is to start treating Canadian homeowners not as citizens, but as balance sheet solutions.

This is not about fearmongering. It’s about pattern recognition. This government has spent beyond its means, taxed beyond reason, and blamed others for the consequences. They are not about to change course. They are about to double down.

And when they do, it won’t be Ottawa’s elite who take the hit. It’ll be the homeowner in Winnipeg who finally paid off their mortgage. It’ll be the senior who planned to pass down a family home. It’ll be the small business owner who poured equity into their shop instead of renting.

For now, the risk of a home equity tax remains theoretical, but fiscal pressures could change that in the future.