Speaking after meeting with constituents in Toronto who want to buy a home, Freeland said the First Home Savings Account is just one tool to help people get into the market.
Questrade Inc. had its account ready for the April 1 launch, while Wealthsimple also recently began offering the option, including to the nearly 20,000 Canadians who were on their wait-list. National Bank also has its FHSA offering up and running, while the remaining Big Six banks say theirs will be ready later this summer or into the fall.
“What they really were saying is this is a crisis, and this is an intergenerational crisis, and I really recognize that," she said."I really believe that it is important for us at the federal level, the provincial level, the municipal level, to put forward all the tools we can to resolve this crisis.”
With the speed of homebuilding not matching population growth, economists at both National Bank and TD Bank warned last week that the high levels of newcomers to Canada threaten to make the housing affordability crisis worse.