Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled on Sunday the establishment of Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency tasked with overseeing federal housing programs. This initiative fulfills the Liberals’ election pledge to double housing construction. Positioned as a centralized entity, Build Canada Homes will manage new affordable housing programs at the federal level.
Carney emphasized that the agency aims to accelerate housing construction nationwide by facilitating the development of supportive and transitional housing in collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities. It will also focus on expanding deeply affordable and community housing while partnering with private developers to construct homes for the middle class. Ana Bailão, a former Toronto city councilor, has been appointed as the CEO of Build Canada Homes.
The agency has the authority to approve construction on public lands and provide initial funding for housing development projects. With a budget of $13 billion, Build Canada Homes is set to finance the construction of 4,000 modular homes across six initial sites in Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Longueuil, Que., and Dartmouth, N.S., with the potential to scale up to 45,000 homes. Construction of these homes is slated to commence next year.
Criticism of Carney’s housing strategy has come from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who argues that the prime minister is introducing unnecessary bureaucratic layers. Poilievre proposed his own housing policies, suggesting incentivizing municipalities to streamline permitting processes and reduce development fees by linking infrastructure funding to homebuilding. He also advocated for eliminating the capital gains tax on reinvested money in homebuilding and abolishing the federal sales tax on home purchases under $1.3 million.
A recent report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) highlighted that while overall housing starts have been high in the first half of the year, concerns persist in expensive housing markets like Toronto and Vancouver. Toronto is experiencing a notable decline in new condominium construction, with forecasts indicating a prolonged period of insufficient housing starts to address affordability challenges.
On a positive note, cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, and Halifax have witnessed robust homebuilding activity, particularly in rental apartment construction. The CMHC projects that Canada’s annual housing starts will need to nearly double by 2035 to meet growing demand, reaching 480,000 homes per year.