[URBAN NOTE] "Ottawa seeks ways to cool hot GTA, Vancouver housing"

[rfmcdonald]

And so it begins? The Toronto Star's Sunny Freeman reports.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has announced the creation of a working group to study the hot housing markets in Vancouver and Toronto, signaling that concerns about overheating are largely isolated.

“We have real pockets of risk,” he said at a Toronto breakfast speech.

Morneau spoke with the provincial finance ministers of Ontario and British Columbia and called the mayors of Toronto and Vancouver earlier this week to discuss the creation of the working group.

It will study factors affecting supply and demand, affordability and the long-term stability of the housing market. The group will not include officials from other provinces, nor any private sector experts such as bank economists or academics.

“We want people to understand that while the federal government has some levers under its control we don’t have all of them,” Morneau said.

“This is a shared responsibility with provincial governments and municipalities, having regulatory and taxation powers to respond to unique local concerns,” he said.