Canada: government & governance/housing 2023-

Can Tiny House Villages Be a Homelessness Fix?
December 2021 Mandate Letter
Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

America Is Aging Into a Housing Crisis for Older Adults
(Bloomberg) A new Harvard report [Housing America’s Older Adults 2023] highlights the housing challenges facing a fast-growing demographic amid the broader US affordability problem.
By 2034, the Census Bureau projects that the US will be home to more people over 65 than people under 18. Finding safe and affordable housing for this fast-growing segment of the population is becoming an urgent task, according to a new report [download PDF] from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (7 December 2023)
The Economics and Politics of Canada’s Housing Supply Issue
Canada is facing a significant housing shortage.
(Policy) Our population has increasesd significantly, growing by an average of 600,000 people annually over the past five years, reaching 40 million in total. Home construction has struggled to keep pace with population growth, peaking at 320,000 new homes in 2022. We now have a medium to long-term supply shortage. Less housing means higher prices and an affordability challenge. We need to build. At the same time, investment in housing has fallen off in the face of rising interest rates and high construction costs, which have tempered short-term housing demand and construction.
Addressing this issue will likely be a policy focal point in the next two federal elections. The problem is too big and complex to go away soon. Governments at all levels and of all political stripes are engaged. There are cyclical and structural challenges. Fasten your seat belts and get ready for a long ride. (9 November 2023)

Budget 2024 prioritizes housing …
New details on housing, Gen Z pledges
(CTV) Taking the premise that the best way to make home prices and rents more affordable is to quickly increase supply, the 2024 budget includes the comprehensive package of housing policy initiatives Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet have been teasing out for weeks.
Promising to build 3.9 million homes by 2031, the housing strategy includes a bevy of measures and $8.5 billion additional spending for building more homes. Much of this spending is spread out over the years ahead.
Among the biggest ticket housing commitments are a $15-billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program; $6 billion for a Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund; as well as $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions for a new rental protection fund.
The 2024 budget also includes $400 million to top up the Housing Accelerator Fund by $400 million, plus $600 million for a series of new homebuilding innovation efforts aimed at scaling up modular and prefabricated homes.
It remains to be seen what the timeline will be for enacting the promised Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights, and select other mortgage and rental rule reforms. Though, allowing 30-year mortgage amortizations for first-time homebuyers purchasing new builds, will be available starting Aug. 1, 2024.
Policy-wise, the budget offers more intel about plans to enact a “public lands for homes” strategy. According to the government, this initiative intends to “unlock 250,000 new homes” by converting unused office towers, parking lots, Canada Post and National Defence properties, into residential land.
Specifically, $1.1 billion is being earmarked over 10 years to convert 50 per cent of the federal government’s office space into housing, saving $3.9 billion over that same period of time. It remains to be seen what the pricing strategy will be for this federal effort to sell off, or re-zone, this land.
The first batch of five federal properties being leased to housing providers “immediately” are in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal, amounting to 800 new homes.

12 April
(Politico Ottawa Playbook) Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND and Housing Minister SEAN FRASER are dropping the mother of all housing plans today during an 11:15 a.m. announcement in Vaughan, Ont.
When Fraser was shuffled to housing last July, he says he bought a new laptop and “started preparing the first set of ideas” that found their way into today’s plan. He gathered staffers who reckoned with the scale of the accelerator fund and dove in
Fraser worries the Canadian economy has the “productive capacity to actually build the homes that we need.” Billions in federal housing incentives will produce a building bottleneck, he says, unless the country encourages “dramatically more people to participate in the trades.”
Fraser said provinces agree on the lack of housing supply in Canada. “It’s not enough to have the intention to do good,” he says. “We need to actually implement the measures in our respective areas of jurisdiction.”
Case study: Ottawa is hoping the provinces bite on a C$6 billion infrastructure fund that unlocks funding only if provinces build certain kinds of housing.

4 April
In the middle of a housing crisis, no one worries about constitutional niceties
Aaron Wherry
Trudeau seems to have learned his lesson: people don’t always care when premiers’ toes get stepped on
(CBC) Last summer — around the same time public support for the governing Liberals began seriously to erode — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the mistake of publicly acknowledging Canada’s constitutional division of powers.
“Housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility,” he said. “It’s not something that we have direct carriage of.”
He wasn’t wrong. He also said his government was willing to do its part. But he was quickly mocked and chided for appearing to dodge responsibility for a serious and widespread problem.
Trudeau seems to have learned the obvious lesson from that episode: in the current climate, there’s nothing to be gained from deferring to other levels of government. Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are apparently no constitutionalists in a housing crisis.
Six weeks after his comments about responsibility, Trudeau was in London, Ont. to announce the first agreement under the Housing Accelerator Fund — an idea first sketched out in the government’s 2022 budget. In exchange for the city’s promise to enact zoning and permitting reforms, the federal government would provide $74 million in housing funding.

10 March
It’s nearly impossible to find a place to rent. But retirement homes have room to spare
Vacancies at seniors’ residences open the doors to options like renting to students
(CBC) While Canada’s average national vacancy rate sits at a record low of 1.5 per cent, there is one kind of property that likely has a “for rent” sign out front: retirement homes.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said vacancy rates for standard spaces in retirement homes averaged 15.6 per cent the last time it surveyed them in 2021, ranging from as high as 26.8 per cent in Alberta and low as 6.3 per cent in Nova Scotia.
Although that CMHC data reflects conditions at the height of the pandemic, numbers from the private sector seem to indicate the trend is continuing.
Chartwell, the largest operator of retirement homes in Canada, said in a press release its forecasted February 2024 vacancy rate was around 15 per cent. That number encompasses a range of options, from apartments for independent living to long-term care homes.
But many seniors are steering clear of residences geared to them, citing reasons such as an increased desire to “age in place” in their own homes or the cost of renting at retirement homes.

28 February
Allison Hanes: Montrealer’s $3-million donation for the unhoused sets a priceless example
As organizations aiding the unhoused struggle to keep up with demand, one person like Bash Shetty can make a big difference.
Bash Shetty may not be a household name to most Montrealers, but a trifecta of residences dedicated to the fight against homelessness will soon bear his moniker.
The results of his latest contribution will be unveiled Wednesday by the Welcome Hall Mission. A sign has already been affixed at two small apartment buildings near its St-Henri headquarters that provide 27 transitional housing units, mainly geared toward young women.
… As governments look to stimulate a construction boom to increase supply and finance social and affordable housing projects, novel solutions are needed.
Philanthropy is being leveraged to build 1,000 new rental units for autonomous, low-income seniors in 10 Quebec towns through a new project that is the brainchild of Luc Maurice, a Quebecer who made his fortune constructing high-end retirement residences. Maurice is contributing $5 million through his foundation — not to mention his expertise — to an endeavour that is a partnership between municipal, provincial and federal governments.

5 February
Despite a national spike in homelessness, some US regions are finding solutions
Hanna Love, Fellow and Tracy Hadden Loh, Fellow – Brookings Metro, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking
(Brookings) Late last year, we published an in-depth analysis of pandemic-era homelessness trends in major U.S. cities [Homelessness in US cities and downtowns] and found a complicated picture: While homelessness was up significantly over the last decade in some cities, such as Seattle, others major cities, including Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, saw meaningful and sustained declines. Our research made it clear that there is no “one-size-fits-all” barometer for understanding America’s challenge with homelessness, and instead, paying attention to regional variations in homelessness trends can help policymakers understand what’s working to reduce it.
Rather than responding to [the] latest reactive, “complaint-based” push that tends to over-criminalize people experiencing homelessness, we argue that local leaders must double down on evidence-based policies that address where, why, and how homelessness actually occurs within U.S. cities to meaningfully reduce homelessness and achieve economic recovery in the nation’s downtowns.

6 February
Canada announces $199 million in support for low-income renters, shelters
Ministers with portfolios that touch on the economy have been holding almost-weekly news conferences since the fall as part of the Liberal government’s effort to sell policies that address cost-of-living issues.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the federal government is putting nearly $200 million in new money toward supporting low-income renters and shelters.
Ottawa is pouring an additional $99 million into the Canada Housing Benefit, which offers financial support for low-income renters in partnership with provinces and territories.
Freeland says another $100 million will go toward emergency winter funding to help shelters to create more spaces for people without housing.
The measures come as the government faces increasing pressure to address skyrocketing rent prices and help communities struggling with homelessness.

Quebec’s controversial housing bill could be adopted next week
(Canadian Press) As the housing crisis continues to worsen in Quebec, the detailed study of Bill 31, which will limit the use of lease transfers, came to an end on Tuesday. Québec solidaire (QS) tried until the end to propose amendments, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

24 January
Bank of Canada says government efforts to curb housing crisis will help ‘gradually’
Record immigration has pushed up housing costs, sent vacancy rates to record lows, says Monetary Policy Report
(CBC) “In the short term any increase in population, particularly in an environment of constrained supply, is going to put upward pressure on prices,” said Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada.
“What’s happened in the Canadian economy over the last year is we had a particularly big surge in population growth through immigration. It came at a time when there was constrained supply. You can see this most clearly in the housing sector, in particular in rents.”
Rogers joined Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem at a press conference Wednesday to release the bank’s quarterly snapshot of the economy, the Monetary Policy Report.
The report says mortgage interest costs are rising by almost 30 per cent a year, while rental costs are rising at about 8 per cent annually.

21 January
Linking immigration to the housing shortage may be missing the problem, experts say
Canada now has more than 2.5M non-permanent residents, a number experts say is driving up rents
(CBC) With rising rents and house prices making it increasingly hard to find an affordable place to live, some are pointing the finger at Canada’s record-level immigration rates.
Immigration is not the only thing putting a strain on the housing market. High interest rates, increasing building costs and red tape at the municipal level that can slow down or halt home construction are all part of the picture.
But to tackle the pressure being created by immigration, some are now openly discussing forging a public policy link between how many people Canada takes in each year and the state of the country’s housing stock.

16 January
Evening Brief: Bumping up housing builds
If Canada is going to jumpstart new housing construction, it needs to get innovative. The CMHC’s chief economist says business as usual construction methods won’t work.
(iPolitics) Housing affordability has been the major issue in the halls of Parliament as of late, but Canada’s housing agency says the pace of new home construction needs to double to close the supply gap and help bring affordability back to the market.
New data from the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) released today shows that housing starts fell by 7 per cent in 2023 compared to a year prior. The data, which covers population centres of 100,000 and more, found that there were 223,513 new units in the past year, compared to 240,590 in 2022.
The 25 per cent drop-off in single-detached starts largely drove the decline, according to the CMHC, though construction of new multi-unit projects partly offset it.
Bob Dugan, the CMHC’s chief economist, said those numbers are a far cry from the some 500,000 new units the country needs annually to close the housing supply gap and bring down costs.
“We estimate that right now there’s about a two million unit gap between what’s needed and how much housing supply there is and that gap is going to grow between now and 2030 to about three-and-a-half million homes,” he said.

12 January
Government working to stabilize immigration levels as housing pressures mount: ministers
Ministers say increasing immigration numbers in recent years helped fill labour shortages
The Canadian Press reported Thursday on internal documents from 2022 showing Immigration Department employees warned their deputy minister that a major increase in immigration could affect access to housing and services.
The federal government ultimately decided to increase the number of permanent residents Canada welcomes each year to 500,000 in 2025 — nearly double the amount from 2015.

7 January
HOUSING AND PARLIAMENTARY ACTION
Parliamentary Research Branch
Overview
Although the Constitution grants the provinces authority over housing policy and programs, all levels of government in Canada are involved in housing. The policies and programs that have evolved address the quantity, quality and cost of housing.
Prior to 1970 virtually all housing policy was federal. Government programs assisted a little over one-third of housing starts, fewer than 5% of which were directed toward low-income housing. During the 1970s, federal assistance increased to 40% of housing starts. By 1986, government programs had dropped to 14% of housing completions and 8% of this federal assistance was directed toward low-income Canadians.
Three federal Acts passed in the 1930s were intended to increase housing stocks so as to ease shortages and to promote job creation through stimulating the private housing market. The Dominion Housing Act (1935), the first national housing legislation, provided $20 million in loans that helped to finance 4,900 units over a three-year period. The 1937 Federal Home Improvement Plan subsidized the interest rates on loans for housing rehabilitation to 66,900 homes. The 1938 National Housing Act (NHA) helped to enable the creditworthy to buy houses, make low-income housing sanitary, and modernize existing housing stock. The Act also provided for construction of low-rent housing. (January 1999)
Housing Accelerator Fund
(CMHC) Encouraging initiatives that increase housing supply and promote the development of affordable, inclusive and diverse communities that are low-carbon and climate-resilient.
The Housing Accelerator Fund provides incentive funding to local governments encouraging initiatives aimed at increasing housing supply. It also supports the development of complete, low-carbon and climate-resilient communities that are affordable, inclusive, equitable and diverse.

7 January
Calgary is transforming old offices to apartments, and experts say other cities should follow
(Globe & Mail) Calgary has been busily working to convert underused office towers to residential housing, thanks to the city’s one-of-a-kind incentive program for developers.
Calgary’s adventure in office conversion
In just two years, the program has resulted in the approval of 13 office-to-residential conversion projects, with four more still under review.
The first project, the $38-million conversion of an underused 10-storey office building into 112 residential apartment units, is nearly complete and expected to open early this year. Several more projects are currently under construction.Calgary’s downtown development incentive program, which offers $75 per square foot to building owners willing to convert underused office space to residential apartments, is unique to North America.
It was launched in 2021, at a time when the city – home to more corporate head offices per capita than anywhere else in Canada – was reeling in the wake of an extended downturn in oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.

2023

The Trudeau Liberals had a tough year. What will they do in 2024?
By Uday Rana
(Global news) … But the biggest moves, experts agree, have come in terms of the housing crisis.
The most recent changes began in July, with Sean Fraser being moved to the Housing Ministry in a move one former senior Liberals says speaks to the need for the government to communicate clearly to Canadians.
“Sean Fraser is exceptional in bringing people to the table, and he is also exceptional in communicating with Canadians on what the federal government is doing. It’s not enough just to do what you have to do. It’s critical for this government to be able to communicate what they are doing over and over again,” said Zita Astravas, former director of issues management for Trudeau and previously a chief of staff to the public safety minister.
“Mr. Fraser is very much turning into the government’s fixer, and I mean that in a positive sense,” Siemiatycki said. “He’s explaining what he’s doing to Canadians very well. His star is definitely on the rise.”
Since taking over the Housing Ministry, Fraser has overseen the rollout of the federal Housing Accelerator Fund and signed deals with a number of municipalities across Canada that have made rapid zoning changes to allow more housing density. In December, Fraser announced the revival of a Second World War-era housing policy that led to the construction of tens of thousands of homes across Canada.
But housing is not an issue that the government will be able to solve overnight, or even within a year. According to a recent report, Canada is short 4.4 million homes that are affordable to people in housing need.

12 December
Canada Revives Wartime Home Strategy to Address Housing Crisis
Thousands of simple ‘Victory Houses’ built starting in ‘40s
New program to add dense homes such as multiplexes, mid-rises
(Bloomberg CityLab) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is cracking open the history books for its latest attempt to address a severe housing shortage in Canada.
The government is moving forward with a catalog of pre-approved home designs to reduce the cost and time it takes to build housing. The idea dates back to the 1940s when thousands of soldiers returned from the Second World War and needed a place to live.
“We are living in a housing crisis, but it’s not the first time Canada’s been here,” said Housing Minister Sean Fraser at a news conference on Tuesday.
Fraser said his government is seeking designs that add density, such as multiplexes, mid-rises, seniors’ homes, student housing, garden suites and lane-way homes. The catalog will feature multiple designs in each category to give communities flexibility, he added.

8 December
Canadian equivalency?
CityLab Daily: Housing Costs Cloud Retirement for US Older Adults
The US Census Bureau projects that by 2034, there will be more people over 65 years old than people under 18. Finding safe and affordable housing for this fast-growing segment of the population is becoming an urgent task, according to a new report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Many older adults remain burdened by rents and mortgages, with roughly a fifth of them spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Healthcare costs and a lack of options to downsize within their own communities — especially in areas dominated by single family homes — can further complicate matters.
… A growing range of senior-focused living models has cropped up to serve these varied needs. Aging-in-place “village” networks can help older adults stay in their homes by connecting them with supportive services within their neighborhoods. Age-restricted affordable rentals or intergenerational home-sharing programs…can also combat cost burdens and social isolation at once. New models of multigenerational housing are emerging in urban areas.
Some housing solutions aimed at addressing the broader lack of affordability are particularly well-suited to older adults, such as zoning reforms and policies that incentivize the construction of smaller “missing middle” housing and accessory dwelling units (they’re nicknamed “granny flats” for a reason). Similarly, placing new housing near public transportation and other services is a boon for people with mobility challenges or who don’t have access to cars — a group that includes more than just seniors.

Not a solution for everyone, but a good one for some
This international student moved into an Ottawa couple’s spare bedroom
“It’s like living with friends who are smarter and wiser than I am,” says 20-year old Goodness Ade, who moved from Nigeria to Canada three years ago
(Maclean’s) Canada continues to face a shortage of affordable housing, and international students are feeling the brunt of it: most schools don’t have enough student housing to accommodate everyone. At the same time, more than five million bedrooms in Ontario alone remain empty, according to a 2017 report by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis. There could be as many as 12 million spare bedrooms across the country.

3 December
All eyes on housing crisis as government, opposition duel over who’s to blame and how to fix it
Political polling suggests Conservatives, who hold big lead, are trusted on housing
(CBC) Eddie Sheppard, a vice-president at Abacus Data, says a recent poll conducted by his firm suggests housing is now the second-ranked priority for Canadians, behind the economy and the cost of living but just ahead of health care. And Conservatives hold an advantage on the issue, Sheppard said.
“Right now about one-third of Canadians think [the Conservatives] would be best able to handle the housing crisis, followed by the NDP and then the Liberal party,” he said.
The new Canadian Mortgage Charter explained
With millions of mortgages coming due, finance minister expects banks ‘to work with’ Canadians

1 December
There is just not enough money to solve Canada’s housing crisis: Stormont Partners
(Bloomberg) Taking a realistic look at Canada’s housing crisis and the 3.5 million more units needed to restore affordability, Greg Kalil, founder and managing partner of Stormont Partners, joins BNN Bloomberg and says it is obvious we won’t hit our housing targets by 2030, and simply not having enough money is one of the many reasons holding us back.

27 November
Relevant to Canada? Any studies or reports?
(Bloomberg CityLab) The US is grappling with an aging housing stock. And as much-needed repairs get neglected, issues like mold, leaking roofs and broken air conditioning are all taking a toll on residents’ health — particularly children’s.
The link between housing and health has recently become a larger part of the affordable housing policy conversation, spurred in part by the pandemic and the climate crisis. Some states are directing health-care funds to cover home repairs with immediate health effects. But connecting resources to the sickest spaces remains a challenge, writes contributor Patrick Sisson reports today on CityLab: The Other Housing Crisis: Too Many Sick, Aging Homes

21 November
Six highlights from the fall economic statement as Canadians struggle with affordability issues
A series of measures to support consumers, and cut everyday costs, includes an amendment to the Competition Act intended to stop manufacturers from refusing “in an anti-competitive manner” to repair devices. Ottawa says Canadians are frustrated by having to throw out household items, such as washing machines and lawnmowers, because they can’t find proper repairs.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will investigate international mobile phone roaming charges, and will present “next steps” next year.
As part of a crackdown on junk fees, airlines will no longer be able to charge parents or guardians extra to have their children under the age of 14 sit next to them on planes. The government plans to work with the Canadian Transportation Agency to amend the Air Passenger Protection Regulations. …
Key highlights from Ottawa’s 2023 fall economic statement
(Canadian Press) Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled her fall economic statement on Tuesday, updating Canadians on the country’s financial health and introducing some new measures to target the housing crisis.
— $40 billion: The updated deficit for this year.
— $15 billion: The amount of money expected to go toward loan funding, beginning in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, to build more than 30,000 homes across Canada.
— $1 billion: The cost of a new affordable housing fund over three years, beginning in 2025-2026, which the federal government projects will help build 7,000 new homes.

20 November
No, Really. Building More Housing Can Combat Rising Rents
To many people, new home construction is synonymous with gentrification. But a new analysis reinforces how more supply drives down housing costs.
(Bloomberg) A study of new housing construction in Helsinki found that new homes rented by higher-income people set off a chain of moves that opened up housing to lower-income people.
To many, construction cranes are considered a grim harbinger of gentrification, not a sign that rents will soon go down. Urban and suburban residents alike, when asked in a 2022 survey about the expected effects of a sudden housing stock surge, overwhelmingly believed that rents and prices would go up or stay the same, not fall.
But a review of recent research into the link between new housing production and apartment affordability offers new evidence that the rules of supply and demand do apply to housing: Building more can slow rent growth in cities and free up more affordable vacant units in surrounding neighborhoods, without causing significant displacement.

9 November
The Economics and Politics of Canada’s Housing Supply Issue
By Matthew Mei
(Policy) Canada is facing a significant housing shortage.
Our population has increasesd significantly, growing by an average of 600,000 people annually over the past five years, reaching 40 million in total. Home construction has struggled to keep pace with population growth, peaking at 320,000 new homes in 2022. We now have a medium to long-term supply shortage. Less housing means higher prices and an affordability challenge. We need to build. At the same time, investment in housing has fallen off in the face of rising interest rates and high construction costs, which have tempered short-term housing demand and construction.
Addressing this issue will likely be a policy focal point in the next two federal elections. The problem is too big and complex to go away soon. Governments at all levels and of all political stripes are engaged. There are cyclical and structural challenges. Fasten your seat belts and get ready for a long ride.
Federal government will spend $900M to build housing in Quebec, matched by province
(Canadian Press) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is announcing a $900-million federal contribution over the next four years to accelerate housing construction in Quebec. He made the announcement today near Montreal alongside Premier François Legault, who said the province has agreed to match the federal funds.
The two politicians say the investment will directly create 8,000 social and affordable housing units, including 500 that will be earmarked for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
They say that in the longer term, the combined $1.8-billion commitment will contribute to helping to build tens of thousands of additional homes, at a time when Canada is grappling with a housing crisis that has seen many people struggling to afford a place to live.
Freeland to table housing and affordability-focused fall economic statement Nov. 21

These tiny-home villages for veterans are spreading across Canada
Homes for Heroes opening in Kingston, Winnipeg with plans for 8 more locations
Tiny homes are making a big difference for Canadian military veterans living on the streets, says an Edmonton case manager for the Homes for Heroes Foundation.
“Every day I come into work knowing we’re helping veterans who want the help,” Michael Schneider says. “There’s honour in that.”
Homes for Heroes launched its first Veterans Village in Calgary in 2019 and opened another in north Edmonton in 2021.
The not-for-profit foundation plans to open a similar village in Kingston, Ont., in a few months, and one in Winnipeg next summer.

7 November
Feds promise to build more homes on public land as fall mini-budget looms

13 October
Quebec and Ottawa sign $900-million housing agreement
(CTV) The federal government will provide Quebec with $900 million for housing construction after reaching an agreement Friday under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).
Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser made the announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling the agreement “historic.”
“We have reached an agreement with Quebec on housing. This comes at a time when we must do all that we can to solve the housing crisis,” the minister posted.
An announcement will be made shortly to divulge the details of this agreement, Quebec’s Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, said on X.

12 October
Private sector won’t do it so governments have to build housing – CCPA
by Karl Nerenberg
(rabble) It is time for governments to move away from incentives to encourage private developers to build housing and for them to put the shovels in the ground themselves. They are going to have to build a significant portion of that new housing themselves – or in partnership with cooperative and non-profit organizations.
That is the conclusion of a study the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives made public on October 4 .
The report’s author, David Macdonald, points out that real estate developers are investing less in new residential housing construction now, in 2023, than they did three years ago in 2020.
The reason for the decline is higher interest rates.
While governments are trying to use incentives, such as tax breaks, to encourage businesses to invest in housing, the Bank of Canada’s interest rate policy is pushing in the opposite direction.

5 October
New apartment construction is booming in Toronto and Vancouver, but overall home building is flat, CMHC says

4 October
Canada is building fewer homes today than during pandemic economy shutdown
Interest rate hikes are behind the collapse of new housing
By David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
(CCPA) Governments of all stripes are scrambling to address the housing supply shortage in municipalities across the country, especially in major cities. From the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to Ontario’s now-aborted plans to open up the green belt for sprawling suburban development, governments are working to set the private sector loose to build, build, build.
As this has been happening, the Bank of Canada has been on a multi-year campaign of raising interest rates to bring down inflation. The explicit goal of interest rate raises is to “cool” the economy. How has that program been affecting housing prices?
A quick look at the numbers shows a dire situation for new builds in the private sector.
Developers are investing less in new residential housing construction than they were in April 2020—the height of pandemic economy shutdown. Compared to the worst of the pandemic, investment in new single-family homes is down 21 per cent. New row homes are down eight per cent, and new apartment construction is down two per cent.
Compared to February 2022 when rate hikes started, the numbers are even more dire. Investment in single-family homes is down 36 per cent, semi-detached houses declined by 27 per cent, new row home construction saw a mild decline of two per cent, and apartment buildings cratered by 19 per cent.
The Bank of Canada estimates that the worst impacts of rate increases take two years to hit the housing sector and the housing sector is the main vehicle for rate hikes to hit the economy. Right now, it has been 18 months since the first rate increases, but most of the bigger rate increases have occurred in the past 12 months—so the worst is yet to come.
Governments of all stripes are scrambling to address the housing supply shortage in municipalities across the country, especially in major cities. From the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to Ontario’s now-aborted plans to open up the green belt for sprawling suburban development, governments are working to set the private sector loose to build, build, build.
As this has been happening, the Bank of Canada has been on a multi-year campaign of raising interest rates to bring down inflation. The explicit goal of interest rate raises is to “cool” the economy. How has that program been affecting housing prices? …
Buy existing rental buildings, outlaw Airbnb, end restrictive zoning
The CCPA does have some proposals which would have impacts in the short-term.
It picks up on  an idea the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA), the national voice for the affordable housing sector, has pushed .
The CHRA has pointed out that while there are federal funds to assist in construction of new, affordable community-housing buildings, there are no such funds to help the community and not-for-profit sector purchase existing rental properties as they go on the market.

3 October
It appears that based on recent figures, Toronto’s vacant home tax has been a huge success for the city, bringing in just as much as expected during its first year while other taxes have failed to do so in our tanking real estate market.
And, to continue cracking down on investors who fail to use their properties as much-needed housing amid the current real estate crisis, the executive committee is recommending the tax actually be increased next year.
A new report shows that 2,336 units were confirmed to be vacant at the time the portal to declare a home as such was closed back in February, with those owners now paying the city one per cent of their property’s assessed value each year that it doesn’t serve as housing supply for themselves or renters.
Vacant Home Tax: Status Update

26 September
Feds unlock another $20 billion for low-cost rental construction financing: Freeland
(CTV) The federal government is unlocking another $20 billion in low-cost financing for the construction of rental housing across Canada, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Tuesday.
The Canada Mortgage Bonds program, which raises funds for residential mortgage financing, had an annual limit of $40 billion.
The limit is being increased to $60 billion, with the additional funds aimed at increasing rental construction specifically. This includes apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences.

25 September
Canada’s housing crisis: Growing concern about immigration levels (YouTube)
CTV News’ Michael Stittle and Nanos Research’s Nik Nanos look at new numbers on how Canada’s housing crisis could be having an impact over the support that Canadians have for immigration – what does that mean for the federal government?

24 September
A crisis in commercial real estate, a crisis in housing: two problems, one solution
David Clement, North American affairs manager with the Consumer Choice Center.
(Globe & Mail) At present, hundreds of zoning restrictions prevent firms from converting commercial offices into mixed-use facilities or residential units, despite the urgent demand for such spaces. Unzoning, or rezoning, these swaths of commercial space could be one way local governments help the industry survive. Cities could also grant tax breaks to offset the costs of conversion, which can be high owing to inherent technical challenges.
Relaxing zoning for most of these commercial spaces would also significantly benefit the housing market, as mixed-use or residential units would increase the housing stock. Given that housing is the top political issue of the day, it’s time to give this some serious consideration.

21 September
Ford apologizes for ‘wrong’ Greenbelt decision, vows to reverse land swap
The Ontario government is changing course and reversing a contentious land swap for the province’s protected Greenbelt, following weeks of pressure and two ministers’ resignations.
“I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. I broke that promise. And for that I’m very, very sorry,” Ford said.
“It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt. It was a mistake to establish a process that moved too fast. This process, it left too much room for some people to benefit over others. It caused people to question our motives. As a first step to earn back your trust, I’ll be reversing the changes we made and won’t make any changes to the Greenbelt in the future.”
Freeland introduces bill to remove GST from rental developments, amend competition law
Liberals say measures will help to address housing crisis
Experts have called on the federal government to remove GST charges from new purpose-built rentals to help spur construction of these homes.
According to the Finance Department, the measure will provide $25,000 in tax relief for a two-bedroom apartment valued at $500,000.
New projects that began construction between Sept. 14 and the end of 2030 are eligible for the full rebate.
These projects must finish construction by the end of 2035.
The bill is also supposed to strengthen the Competition Bureau — part of the federal government’s efforts to address high prices driven by a lack of competition. … The legislation would give the bureau the power to compel information from companies to conduct market studies and block collaborations that stifle competition and consumer choice. It would also eliminate the “efficiencies defence,” which has been used to approve anti-competitive mergers in cases where the efficiencies generated offset the competitive harm.

20 September
With the housing crisis, Canada’s big and influential firms are bleeding talent
(Globe & Mail) Over the past several years, there have been rumblings about high-paying and prestigious professional firms struggling to retain their highly paid and prestigious young employees. Apparently, banks and investment firms are leaking juniors. Associates at Bay Street law firms, meanwhile, are opting for less gruelling work in alternate career paths.
A number of explanations have been thrown around for this phenomenon, from market changes – such as the expansion of in-house jobs or the rising tech sector – to attitudinal ones, such as the sudden prioritization of something called “work-life balance.”
But none of these reasons explains this trend as well as Canada’s housing crisis. Simply put, the expensive price of a home is resulting in talent attrition at some of the biggest and most influential firms in the country. Sooner or later we will see the impact of this on the economy.

18 September
John Ibbitson: There is only so much Ottawa can do about Canada’s housing crisis
There is a simple solution to the housing crisis: Voters in municipalities across Canada could elect mayors and councils dedicated to stripping away zoning restrictions, while simplifying and lowering the costs of permissions and permits.
Unfortunately, voters in municipal elections tend to be homeowners who benefit from escalating prices and who want to preserve their neighbourhoods. Councils reflect their will.
This may be why federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is violating a core principle of his party: that it does not interfere in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Only Liberals do that.
Mr. Poilievre has abandoned that principle, as he says that, if he were prime minister, he would threaten mayors and councils with financial penalties unless they loosened zoning restrictions. Municipalities are, as the saying goes, creatures of the provinces. Mr. Poilievre wants to make them creatures of Ottawa.
Trudeau says he ‘should have, could have’ moved faster on housing
Trudeau announced new measures last week aimed at countering rising housing prices — and at fending off claims that his government has been missing in action on the issue.
The measures include removing the GST from the construction of new rental apartments to spur new development.
The federal government is also requiring that municipalities repeal or amend exclusionary zoning policies in order to access the government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser has sent letters to municipalities — including one to the mayor of Calgary — threatening to withhold funds if they don’t tweak their zoning policies. … Calgary City Council voted Saturday to approve a new housing strategy that will introduce blanket rezoning of residential districts to allow for more housing types.

17 September
Dispatch from the Front Line
The Liberals have announced that they will be dropping the GST from the building costs of purpose-built rental developments. This seems like a good idea to us… overdue, in fact. Purpose-built rentals have long had lower rates of return, making them a less attractive economic investment for those with capital to spend on new construction. Dropping the GST, with provinces also pledging to drop provincial sales taxes, can help incentivize more of this construction by closing that gap. This won’t result in prices dropping in any time soon, but anything that gets more housing built is welcome. The government has also said it will be linking federal funding for municipal projects to construction of houses in those communities. Again, this is a good idea, and we thought so when the Conservatives first announced it a while ago.
We suspect that municipalities will try to get cute on this. Don’t be shocked to see them approving projects in theory, pocketing federal cash, and then finding all kinds of interesting regulatory ways to slow it down. The offer of some federal cash alone will not slay the NIMBY dragons that actually rule this country’s cities. But again, as far as it goes, it seems like a good plan. We hope that the feds are absolutely ruthless about tying the money to delivered units, not approved proposals, or even vaguer metrics like rezoning. Time will tell.
And time is exactly what concerns our final point. In the last few weeks, the Liberals realized that they are in deep trouble on this file. They are late, as always, but they’re getting there. We suspect, though, that they will soon be victims of that other problem in Canadian governance: our glacial speed of policy implementation and execution. Liberal partisans have taken to reminding us all that the next election is still probably two years away. We would be shocked to see much progress, if any, in that time period. Even if the Liberals got every last part of the housing file right starting tomorrow, the Canadian ship of state simply does not turn that quickly.

15-16 September
Canada’s housing crisis will take years to solve, finance minister says
(Reuters) – An affordable housing crisis that is hurting the Canadian government’s popularity will take years to resolve, even if construction hits an 80-year high, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Saturday.
Her comments were among the first by a senior member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal administration to acknowledge the scale of the challenge. Polls show the Liberals trailing their Conservative rivals, who blame Ottawa for high inflation and soaring home prices.
Andrew Coyne: Home truths about Canada’s housing mess
A few points, therefore, to bear in mind as we suffer through the next couple of years:
This is a global phenomenon. Prices are higher in Canada than in many other countries, especially relative to incomes – but housing prices are soaring across the developed world. And for similar reasons: loose monetary policy, subsidized mortgages, restrictive municipal zoning laws, population movements. Everybody’s grappling with this.
It’s been decades in the making. It’s been clear for many years that Canada has a structural imbalance in its housing market, though perhaps the causes are clearer in hindsight. Much effort was expended in recent years blaming high home prices on foreign speculators and absentee landlords. So, boom, governments brought in new taxes on foreign buyers and empty homes. Nothing much changed.
Then it was all about low interest rates. So the Bank of Canada brought in 10 straight increases in its policy rate, driving mortgage rates to 6 or even 7 per cent. That knocked prices a bit lower, for a time, but they are already showing signs of reviving.
It’s a shortage of houses, not a surplus of people. Now everyone’s convinced the problem is high immigration. No doubt there’s some truth in this, in specific markets – the extraordinary, seemingly unanticipated surge in the number of foreign students enrolling in Canadian universities and colleges has overwhelmed the supply of student housing. Maybe a pause there would help.
But we had higher immigration rates in the past without igniting a housing crisis. And prices were already at stratospheric levels long before the immigration surge of the past two years. I don’t disagree that made things worse, but it’s the long-term decline in the supply of new housing that has set us up for this.
It won’t be solved by government housing programs. …
Un logement supervisé plutôt qu’un refuge, c’est ce qui a permis à une ancienne sans-abri de sortir de la rue. Au moment où l’itinérance gagne du terrain dans de nombreuses villes, les maires estiment de plus que Québec doit délier les cordons de sa bourse.

13-14 September
Trudeau announces new measures to deal with housing, grocery prices
New initiatives come as Liberals conclude caucus meeting in London, Ont.
‘Housing is a solvable problem,’ Trudeau says, unveiling first funding under program pledged years ago
Trudeau announces $74M to help London, Ont., build 2,000 new homes
Agreement with London is first in Canada under Housing Accelerator Fund
(CTV) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the “first of many” municipal agreements under the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund on Wednesday, a small-scale step that the Liberals are framing as an example of how they plan to tackle the issue that’s become so pressing for many Canadians.
The $74-million deal with London, Ont. will fast-track the creation of more than 2,000 housing units over the next three years, and build thousands more in the years following. The Liberals say it is part of a promised multi-pronged housing strategy to be illuminated in the months ahead.
These housing units will include high-density development without the need for re-zoning, and clear the way for more development of duplexes, triplexes, and small apartment buildings close to public transit on city land, according to the government.
Trudeau unveils housing funds for London, offers no details on broader plan
Justin Trudeau, facing immense pressure to address the housing affordability crisis across the country, announced targeted local funding under a previous program to speed up construction, but did not provide any details about broader measures.
Feds unveil first deal for new housing accelerator fund in London
First deal signed for housing accelerator fund
(The Star) The federal government is trying to channel the anger it’s facing over the lack of affordable housing into a challenge for municipalities.
Federal housing minister pledges unprecedented housing measures as Trudeau meets Liberal caucus
Changing ‘the financial equation’ for builders among measures to be unveiled, says minister

Canada needs 3.45 million more homes by 2030 to cut housing costs as population grows, CMHC predicts
(Globe & Mail) Canada needs an additional 3.45 million homes by the end of the decade to bring housing costs down as the population increases, according to a new report from the federal housing agency.
This is the second report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. that quantifies the number of new homes the country needs to build to ensure that households are not spending more than 40 per cent of their disposable income on shelter.
This year’s forecast is slightly lower than 2022′s prediction that an additional 3.5 million home are needed after CMHC cut the number needed in Ontario to take into account fewer households expected in the country’s most populated province. At the same time, the agency said the supply gap has widened in B.C. and Quebec over its previous outlook due to weaker supply in the western province and an increase in the number of households in the latter.

12 September
Rising Insurance Rates Are Crushing Affordable Housing Developers
Natural disasters and crime are being blamed for property insurance hikes that are frustrating builders of much-needed new apartment buildings.
(Bloomberg) Developers of apartment buildings across the US are raising alarms as property insurance rates continue to rise, a trend that threatens to seal off the pipeline for much-needed housing construction — especially new apartments with affordable units.
Premiums and deductibles for policies required by mortgage lenders have shot up two- to three-fold over the last five years, frustrated developers say. Increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters are fueling these changes across the industry. Multifamily housing developers in California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas in particular — but not exclusively — are seeing triple-digit increases in costs as insurance providers adjust to extreme weather connected to global climate change, according to industry leaders.

11 September
Student housing crisis: Municipal bylaws have created roadblocks for decades
Researchers examined 15 Ontario municipalities with a major university campus, and found only one (Waterloo) had adopted plans designed to accommodate student housing near the campus
Alexander Wray, PhD Candidate in Geography, Western University and Nick Revington, Professeur de logement et dynamiques urbaines, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
(The Conversation) University and college students have become a flashpoint in Canada’s national housing crisis.
The federal government is considering a limit on international study permits, something opposed by Universities Canada and scholars and advocates concerned about scapegoating international students for the housing shortage. …
Students in Canada and their communities urgently need solutions. Amid finger-pointing at the federal government, individual institutions and the provinces, which fund higher education and set development standards, municipal governments have been largely absent from the discussion.
Yet municipal planning has been hostile to student housing for decades. When this history is coupled with abysmal levels of on-campus housing construction since the 1990s and a doubling of enrolments since 2000, the current crisis seems inevitable.

5 September
The (possibly fatal) flaw in Doug Ford’s Greenbelt plan
(Globe & Mail editorial board) Ontario Premier Doug Ford repeated his tired mantra about building more homes last week, after the province’s Integrity Commissioner ruled that the Housing Minister, Steve Clark, had allowed “the private interests of certain developers” in the Greenbelt to be “furthered improperly.”
“When we have a housing crisis, I have two options,” Mr. Ford said. “I sit back … and let the whole province fall apart, or we move forward and we build homes.”
That was the same lame justification he used three weeks earlier, after the Ontario Auditor-General similarly ruled that his government’s “flawed” process for removing sites from the Greenbelt was “biased” and led to “certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment.”
The Auditor-General also noted in her report that the Ford government’s own housing affordability task force had found in 2022 that there was no need to build in the Greenbelt, because “a shortage of land isn’t the cause” of the crisis. …
There is no obligation on the developers to actually build 50,000 homes in the Greenbelt. They will only build more if the infrastructure is affordable and if the housing market is profitable, and Mr. Ford will have little means of persuading them to keep going after 2025.
Ontario may or may not see 50,000 homes built on precious farmland and wetlands by 2032. Mr. Ford may or may not survive the scandal’s hit to his government’s credibility.
But the major developers that will be free to develop their Greenbelt holdings at their leisure after 2025? They’ll be fine forever.
Randall Denley: Doug Ford deflects Greenbelt conspiracy theories
After housing minister resigns, province brings in development plan it should have from the start
(National Post) …Ford is clearly not backing down on future Greenbelt development. In his view, “nothing is more important than building homes.” To meet the demands of a rapidly growing population, the Greenbelt has to be considered, the premier suggested. His own housing affordability task force didn’t realize the full magnitude of population growth when they made their report, he says.
That’s a fair point. Even the province’s highly ambitious plan to build 1.5 million homes in 10 years won’t be enough to meet need when the province’s population is growing by 500,000 people a year. Ontario also has a substantial existing housing shortage. It would require about 650,000 additional homes to move the province to the national average of homes per capita.
One might reasonably ask why the government didn’t take this rational approach to Greenbelt development in the first place. It would have made its land choices much more defensible.

30 August
200 Montreal tenants have pledged to go on a rent strike this fall. Why more may join them
Tenants’ union organizing rent strike against Quebec’s Bill 31, skyrocketing rent
 Tenants’ association organizer explains why they’re planning a rent strike:
(CBC) It’s getting harder and harder for people to make ends meet, And housing is often at the top of the expense list. Renters are feeling the pinch. There’s little relief outside the home too, with food and gas prices remaining high, and inflation rising again last month to 3.3% . All this has led to one tenants’ union to start organizing a rent strike this fall. The Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union is collecting pledges from tenants to withhold their rent. To protest Bill 31 and skyrocketing rents. Sarah Toews is organizer with the union and its rent strike committee.
12 June
Landlords could cancel rental lease transfers under new Quebec bill
Restrictions around evictions also on the table
Tenant rights groups and landlord associations are criticizing the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s newly tabled housing legislation.
Bill 31 proposes several changes to leases, including modifying eviction procedure and lease assignments, also known as lease transfers. It was tabled Friday as the National Assembly goes into recess for the summer and won’t be debated until fall.
Quebec’s minister responsible for housing says she knows the bill will be controversial, but she believes it covers major concerns for both tenants and landlords.

27 August
The federal government used to build social housing. Then it stopped. How is that going?
Consecutive federal governments in the 1980s and 90s pulled back on funding new affordable housing
(CBC The Sunday Magazine) Canada had long provided subsidized housing for people who couldn’t afford to pay market value: for workers and returning veterans after the Second World War, for example, and in the 1970s and early 80s as pressure mounted for Ottawa to intervene during a series of recessions.
In the early to mid-1990s, back-to-back governments of different political stripes — first the Conservative government under Brian Mulroney and then Jean Chretien’s Liberals — began pulling back from the business of affordable housing.
Facing big deficits and with neoliberalism taking hold globally, Ottawa reduced spending on housing, cut the federal co-operative housing program (one that saw the construction of nearly 60,000 homes) and eventually pulled the plug on building any new affordable housing units altogether.
Analysis: Housing might not be Trudeau’s sole responsibility, but it’s his problem
We now have a 30 year deficit in non-market housing, said Andy Yan, director of the city program at Simon Fraser University.
Canada’s housing crisis has been the Liberal government’s priority at this week’s cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, P.E.l., with the country’s housing minister, Sean Fraser, even suggesting the the federal government is considering a cap on the number of international students to ease the pressure on the housing market.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), Canada needs to build 5.8 million new homes — including two million rental units — by 2030 to tackle housing affordability.
Municipalities left to manage housing file
It’s not just the federal government that’s passed the buck on affordable housing. Over a number of years in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Conservative government in Ontario, under Mike Harris, passed the file to municipalities to manage.
Experts say they’ve given Trudeau’s cabinet a strategy to tackle the housing crisis
The authors of a recent report that pitched the federal government a way to restore affordability to Canada’s housing market say they’re optimistic their recommendations could soon become Liberal policy after addressing Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and his cabinet in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
…a recent report on how the federal government can address the shortage of units in housing markets, titled A Multi-Sector Approach to Ending Canada’s Rental Housing Crisis, was written by a coalition of housing experts, advocates and industry representatives. … One of the report’s key recommendations calls on the federal government to take on a leadership role and co-ordinate with provinces, territories and municipalities to ensure that more rental units are built.

24 August
The politics of housing now defines both Trudeau and Poilievre
(CBC) There are, despite appearances, a few crucial points on which the prime minister and the leader of the Official Opposition agree. They both agree, for instance, that the cost of housing is a pressing problem that demands action — a level of agreement that does not exist for climate change.
They both agree that at least part of the solution involves other levels of government. They both agree that federal funding can play a meaningful role in creating change.
… Poilievre says he would have the federal government unload 6,000 buildings. The federal government already has a program to sell surplus properties for affordable housing — the Federal Lands Initiative — which was launched in 2019 with the stated goal of making available “4,000 suitable properties.” At least some buildings have been put up for sale, but a parliamentary committee report last year suggested the program could be improved.

22 August

Housing Instability Spiked During the Pandemic. Homelessness Didn’t.
(Bloomberg CityLab) New federal data on the most vulnerable renters in the US show how relief efforts held off a wave of evictions as Covid raged. But the housing affordability crisis remains.
Despite a record spike in the number of renters most vulnerable to displacement at the height of the pandemic, the “eviction tsunami” that US housing advocates feared never came. Instead, homelessness — measured by the number of people entering shelters — declined between 2019 and 2021, according to a new report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
19 August
Developers Forecast Major Affordable Housing Drought in 2025
High prices and rising interest rates are leading to financing gaps and delays that could trigger a crash in the supply of new affordable housing.
(Bloomberg CityLab)…the pace of new construction looks to change dramatically over the next two years — especially for affordable housing. Developers see a massive shortage ahead, which threatens to undo the recent progress in closing the daunting affordable housing gap in many US cities.

Trudeau defends himself against internal and external criticism, but announces no new housing measures
While Trudeau said his government will “need to ensure more housing is built,” he and his cabinet are leaving the Island without committing to any new initiatives.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended himself Wednesday against external and internal criticism of his approach to Canada’s housing crunch after wrapping a three-day cabinet retreat without any new housing policy to announce.
“I think Canadians are really worried and looking at blaming anyone they can for it, and that’s totally natural and totally right,” Trudeau said during the final day of a cabinet retreat on Prince Edward Island.
“The question Canadians are also asking is, are we going to be able to fix it? Are we going to be able to get through this as a country? My answer is, absolutely.”
Trudeau acknowledged grumbling coming from inside his caucus from MPs unhappy with the party’s positions on certain issues. According to recent media reports, some Liberal MPs worry that voters have grown tired of Trudeau and believe their government is out of touch with Canadians’ concerns about the cost of living.

22 August
One-on-one with Canada’s housing minister: Lack of affordability a ‘crisis’ and an ‘opportunity’
(CTV) “The exact nature of how a national crisis impacts you varies immensely between different people in different life situations; but, I don’t think it does any good for somebody in my position who wants to play a leadership role in solving these challenges to ignore the magnitude of it.” …
Housing affordability is a multi-jurisdictional issue but Fraser and his cabinet colleagues heard from experts during this retreat who told them that shouldn’t stop the feds from employing a top-down strategy.
Professor Mike Moffatt, an economist and founding director of the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, is one of those experts.
“There are all kinds of things within federal jurisdiction that they could do today that could get new homes built tomorrow,” Moffatt said in an interview just before presenting to cabinet ministers.
According to Moffatt, that includes tax tweaks to make housing construction more viable, clearing up the apartment application backlog at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, getting involved in long-term, low-interest financing for purpose-built rental projects and more incentives for municipalities to speed construction up and reduce red tape.
Time is not on anyone’s side, though. The CMHC estimates Canada needs nearly six million new homes by 2030, which would require a tripling of the current rate of home building.
Liberal cabinet set to hear from housing experts at P.E.I. retreat
(Global) Two housing experts who helped co-author a recent report on the federal government’s role in solving the housing crisis are set to present their findings to the cabinet later on Tuesday.
The report delivered a week ago warns that “Canada’s housing crisis is worsening dramatically” in large part because of an “extreme” lack of accessible and affordable rentals.
The authors say a new industrial housing strategy is required that brings together governments, private sector and non-profit agencies to address a shortage of housing overall, and a shortage of affordable housing in particular.
21 August
Trudeau says affordability crisis is top priority at P.E.I cabinet retreat
The federal cabinet on Tuesday is expected to discuss whether to revisit the existing national housing strategy and possibly hold a national housing summit with other levels of government and the private sector in a bid to solve the growing housing crisis across the country.
The discussions underway at the cabinet retreat in Charlottetown come as the Liberals look ahead to the fall sitting of Parliament where they plan to make housing the central focus of their efforts.

Nunavik housing shortage – The far-reaching impacts on education
Housing for school board staff in the community of Quaqtaq. Nunavik is still missing some 160 units for its personnel, something that has knock-on effects on everything from teacher recruitment and retention, to the programs that are offered to students.

15 August
Housing minister says federal government should have stayed in housing game
(CTV) Housing Minister Sean Fraser says the federal government should have never got out of the housing business even as high-income professionals are struggling to find affordable housing.
“For the better part of the last half century, federal governments of different partisan stripes, by the way, liberal and conservatives, have stepped away from forwarding affordable housing in this country,” he said. “That should never have happened, but it did.”
Fraser said now much of the country is dealing with a housing crunch that has no easy fixes.
Long way home: Blamed for affordability crisis, Liberals look to pivot on housing
For the federal Liberals, the growing discontent with the state of the housing market is becoming a political threat. … Experts say the housing crisis poses a great risk to the incumbent government in the next election if it doesn’t take drastic action soon.
“This has become probably the most important both economic and political problem facing the country right now,” said Tyler Meredith, a former head of economic strategy and planning for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
“And especially given the significant emphasis the government has put on immigration and the relationship between immigration and the housing market, there is a need to do more.”
How the feds could push cities to build more homes — with a carrot or stick
From local zoning to community consultations, there are plenty of ways cities are hitting the brakes on residential construction, even as Canada faces a significant housing shortage.
According to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, average municipal approval timelines for housing projects in 2022 spanned from three months to nearly three years, depending on the city.
That’s why encouraging municipalities to build more homes, more quickly, is becoming a major focus of federal housing policy, as well as the politics around it.
Housing experts, advocates, industry have unified message for government: Get more rentals built
Report calls on all levels of government to work collaboratively to address a lack in rental units in Canada
(CBC) This is from a new report titled A Multi-Sector Approach to Ending Canada’s Rental Housing Crisis, co-authored by Mike Moffatt, founding director of the PLACE Centre at the Smart Prosperity Institute, Tim Richter, president & CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, and Michael Brooks, head of REALPAC, a group that represents 130 real estate firms.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), Canada needs to build 5.8 million new homes — including two million rental units — by 2030 in order to tackle housing affordability.

11 August
Aaron Wherry: Housing might not be Trudeau’s sole responsibility, but it’s his problem
The Liberals can’t afford to ignore concerns about real estate prices
Justin Trudeau’s recent observation that housing isn’t a “primary federal responsibility” was something of a Kinsley gaffe — the act of inadvertently telling the truth or inconveniently confessing some private thought. … [However] the case that federal policy does have a significant and, in many cases, direct impact on the affordability of housing in Canada. And Trudeau’s Liberals have, since 2015, embraced the idea that the federal government can play a meaningful and constructive role in expanding access to housing (the word “housing” appeared 29 times in the Liberal party’s 2015 platform). In 2017, the government announced a national housing strategy that now includes $82-billion in federal spending and commitments.
The prime minister was not wholly wrong, per se, when he said housing was not something the federal government has “direct carriage of.” Housing is not like national defence or foreign policy or international trade — areas of policy for which the federal government has sole responsibility. It’s a matter of shared jurisdiction and many of the policy levers and regulations exist at the provincial and municipal level.
Gary Mason: The part of our housing conundrum politicians don’t want to talk about
One thing few people talk about is the costs various levels of government impose on the construction of new housing that are helping, in part, to create the ridiculous prices we see in almost every part of the country, but particularly in centres such as Toronto and Vancouver.
Some of these fees and taxes have always been there, but more have been added in recent years. And in an inflationary environment where the cost of everything has gone up, including labour and materials, you end up with 800-square-foot condos that cost more than $1-million.
The Urban Development Institute in Vancouver recently updated a report it did in 2018 that looked at the various taxes and fees developers must accept if they want to build housing in B.C. It’s an eye-opener.
In one example, the institute looked at the costs of an 800-square-foot condo in Vancouver in 2023 and what contributed to the unit’s staggering average price of $1.12-million. … The subtotal for fees per unit is $290,422 just to build, and upon sale, the total climbs to $327,565.53 – or 29.25 per cent of the imagined condo’s cost. … Many of these same levies apply to developers trying to build purpose-built rentals, which are also in high demand. Yes, there are some rebates available for this type of housing, but the tax demands on builders and landlords are still extremely high, which is why rental prices are also outrageous.
Jen Gerson: Without genuine political courage, we’ll get more of the same on housing

9 August
Amid Canada’s housing crisis, immigration needs to be slower, more focused
Canada must cherish immigrants, helping them settle as much as possible – but we need some breathing space to be able to do so properly.
(Globe & Mail) In the short term, the housing crisis cannot be solved – it can only be mitigated. Building new housing takes time. In the meantime, reducing immigration temporarily to prepandemic levels would help. Those levels would still provide ample room for home construction workers if necessary, as well as other high-skilled workers in strategic areas.
Dear Justin Trudeau, housing is absolutely your responsibility.
By Cathy Crowe
Canadians are tired of your government’s finger-pointing. Housing is the most fundamental building block of peoples’ health and the nation’s future.
(rabble.ca) Housing is the most fundamental building block of health, of a successful future for a household, the community, and the nation. You could never get away with saying that Medicare or pensions or unemployment insurance are not your responsibility.
Are the following not federal responsibilities related to housing: the Bank of Canada’s interest rates, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) mortgage insurance fund, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ (OSFI) mortgage lending regulations, and national economic policy via the Finance Department and your annual budgets?
We know the impact of the climate crisis – including wildfire smoke, extreme heat and catastrophic flooding – is felt most among poorly housed people and the homeless. It is further dehousing people through flood damage.
… Canada’s national housing program was cancelled in the early 1990s by then-Liberal Minister of Finance Paul Martin and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Various housing ministers, both Conservative and Liberal, have only continued to insufficiently invest in social housing.
I acknowledge that you created a National Housing Strategy in 2017. I celebrated it at the time. However, it is now widely considered tragically inadequate, as the National Housing Council report noted this year.

7 August
Housing is a direct federal responsibility, contrary to what Trudeau said. Here’s how his government can do better.
Carolyn Whitzman, Housing Policy Researcher, Expert Advisor, Housing Assessment Resource Tools and Adjunct Professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa ; Alexandra Flynn, Associate Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
(The Conversation) While the word “housing” isn’t mentioned in the 1867 Constitution Act or 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a federal, provincial or municipal responsibility, the rights to “life, liberty and security of the person” as well as “equal protection” in the Charter can’t be achieved without adequate housing.
The right to housing — which Canada has promised to enforce in numerous international covenants — was enshrined in Canadian law by the current government in 2019.

4 August
Justin Trudeau needs to make housing a primary federal responsibility
(G&M editorial board) For two decades, from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, through Liberal and Conservative governments, Ottawa was largely absent from housing.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015 promised to change that, with major federal investments in affordable rental housing. As of March, Ottawa had committed more than $30-billion (much of it low-cost loans for rental housing), and the result is 107,519 new homes.
It is at once a success and failure. It’s more than Ottawa has done in a long time – and it’s far, far too little. The Trudeau government has been overtaken by events: an out-of-control housing market where the cost to buy or rent is extreme.
The situation has brewed for decades, and the blame can be pinned on city councils whose restrictive zoning laws keep the supply of housing well below demand. But Mr. Trudeau has yet to fully realize how bad things are.
On Monday, he trotted out the tiniest news: 214 homes in Hamilton. The fact that Ottawa thought such a minor announcement was worthy of a press conference with the Prime Minister shows a poor grasp of reality.

31 July
Cities and Provinces Urged to Take Action on Housing Crisis: Trudeau
(Energy portal.eu) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasized the need for cities and provinces to take action in addressing the housing crisis in Canada. Speaking in Hamilton, Ontario, Trudeau highlighted that while housing is not primarily the responsibility of the federal government, Ottawa must play a role in finding solutions.
Not enough places to live, Trudeau says of the housing market, as he pledges support to scale supply
(Globe & Mail) Political insiders expect Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals to spend the rest of the summer focused on affordability issues, and housing in particular, as Canadians struggle with high inflation, especially the rising cost of groceries, and global uncertainty.

27 July
Trudeau’s shuffle puts new faces in charge of housing crisis and future of Canadian media
by Karl Nerenberg
While pundits focus on polls, Trudeau’s new cabinet has some serious policy challenges it must face.
Political geography aside, there are two ministers with new portfolios we should all watch carefully.
They are: Nova Scotian Sean Fraser, who moves from Immigration to Housing, Infrastructure and Communities….
The Liberals …know there are legions of Canadian families who will soon face big mortgage increases – if they are not already facing them – and legions of others who cannot pay their rent.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reports regularly on the affordability of rental accommodation in Canada. It issued its latest report (Can’t afford the rent – Rental wages in Canada 2022) about a month ago and the news is all bad. Almost everywhere in Canada, with the exception of three cities in Quebec, basic rental units are out of reach for Canadians earning minimum wage.

24 July
The housing crisis won’t improve until all levels of governments tackle it head on
Robin Wiebe, senior economist and Ted Mallett, director of economic forecasting, The Conference Board of Canada
(Globe & Mail Opinion) …skyrocketing housing prices are threatening an entire generation’s housing aspirations, and governments at all levels need to be much more innovative in efforts to bring down housing costs. … Housing supply measures were not at the top of government priority lists in the past and the results speak for themselves.
… New housing supply, faster regulatory approval times and reduced red tape, combined with increased densification and the addition of greenfield land, are all levers that need to be deployed to ramp up supply to have even a hope of keeping pace with demand.
As it stands, urban planners, housing bureaucrats and some politicians often exhibit anti-suburban sentiment. This camp has long promoted higher density as the optimal housing solution. They like its use of existing municipal services, its promotion of environmentally friendly walking and transit use and its low cost per new unit compared to greenfield development. This may put them on a direct collision course with what consumers really want – the Canadian dream of a single detached home with a garage and a backyard in a leafy suburb.

19 July
Mitch Heimpel: The Liberals are planning to lose a housing election
… For the foreseeable future, housing is the government’s largest intergovernmental affairs issue.
(The Line) Yes, the provinces will continue to ask for more money for other things — including health care. But even the Premiers see infrastructure as the biggest emerging need on their horizon.
You need one minister. One minister responsible for housing, infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs. One person whose job it is to deal with the provinces and municipalities on their infrastructure and housing needs. One person whose job it is to coordinate the government’s overall policy response. One political face that is accountable when federal housing programs spend a lot of money to achieve even the most modest of housing targets. If the government is serious about its immigration policy, it has to be serious about its housing policy, and right now the federal government is set up to continually fail unless it starts imposing some organization on a policy file it clearly has trouble grasping. Put another way, this would be a good time to show that “deliverology” is something more than money making for management consultants or The Line’s favourite punchline.

30 June
Ontario caps 2024 rent increases at 2.5 per cent; does not apply to newer units
Cap only applies to units occupied before November 2018
The cap does not apply to rental units first occupied after Nov. 15, 2018. Landlords can also apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for increases above 2.5 per cent.
They must also give tenants at least 90 days’ written notice of a rent increase and they are not allowed to increase the rent more than once a year.
The government set the rent increase guideline at zero in 2021 during the pandemic and raised it to 1.2 per cent for 2022.

22 June
New indicators raise more concerns on housing affordability and supply
The results of CMHC’s Rental Housing Survey are always highly anticipated, as they provide a comprehensive view of current conditions of this critical segment of the housing market.
In addition to providing this view, the 2022 edition opens our eyes to new perspectives.
Methodological improvements provide a more accurate view of the issues facing the future of housing in Canada: access to affordable housing and supply in the years to come.

27 April
Lower house prices and less supply projected for 2023
(CMHC) We project housing starts to decrease in 2023 and remain well below recent levels. Homeownership is becoming increasingly unaffordable as mortgage rates rise and supply remains tight. The rental market will become more competitive, putting significant upward pressure on rents because there are fewer options available.

17 April
Renewing Canada’s National Housing Strategy
A comprehensive report on improving Canada’s affordable housing challenge
(/CNW/)  The National Housing Council has submitted a report to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion with recommendations on improving the National Housing Strategy.
The report entitled Renewing Canada’s National Housing Strategy is a comprehensive review of the federal government’s national housing strategy, and Canada’s progress toward achieving its goals. The report was developed following series of research activities, analysis, and stakeholder engagements. It recommends changes to the strategy to address the growing housing challenges faced by low-income households and Canadians facing deepest housing need.
The National Housing Council’s report concludes that:
Many low- and moderate-income families in Canada struggle to access affordable, safe, suitable, and adequate housing.
Canada is losing affordable housing faster and in greater quantities than the National Housing Strategy programs are producing it. According to recent estimates, between 2011 and 2021 over 550 000 units of housing that offered rents for $750/month or less has been lost. The National Housing Strategy as originally designed only had a target to produce 150 000+ new units.
30 years of federal absence from direct housing investments has significantly impacted the creation and maintenance of non-market housing in Canada. The National Housing Strategy programs remain focused on market housing and do not meaningfully improve affordable housing supply in Canada.
Current NHS program design has had limited impact on adequately responding to those in greatest need of access to affordable housing and more specifically to priority groups identified in the strategy. Overall, the units produced so far do little to reduce the number of households in core housing need or facing homelessness. The current programs often exclude those who are meant to be supported by the Strategy.
Misaligned or uncoordinated jurisdictional responses reduces effectiveness and impact and add complexity for housing providers serving the most vulnerable.
The National Housing Strategy provided a starting point for government leadership and actions on affordable housing challenges in Canada. Since the Strategy was publicly released in 2017, housing issues in Canada have continued to deteriorate and it will be increasingly challenging for Canada’s most vulnerable to access adequate and affordable housing that meets their needs. Compounding and rapidly changing global and national trends have magnified these challenges for those facing economic hardship. Renewing the Strategy with the recommendations we offer will create concrete, measurable improvements in housing and in the lives of Canadians.

30 March
Getting our houses in order: How a lack of intergovernmental policy coordination undermines housing affordability in Canada
This commentary highlights some of the consequences of the mismatch between housing demand and supply, and offers some solutions
Conclusion
(Macdonald Laurier) Housing affordability in Canada continues to deteriorate. This has been driven in part by a growing gap between housing construction and population growth. This gap is in part driven by a lack of inter-governmental coordination. In particular, the federal government sets immigration levels without much thought to housing policy, while municipal and provincial governments set housing policy without sufficiently accounting for population growth.
This report has proposed a number of potential policy options. In broad terms, Canada needs a better alignment of federal, provincial, and municipal policies related to housing.