The initial investment in the program consists of $13 billion. These funds will be used to construct affordable housing on federally-owned land in Dartmouth, NS, Longueuil, QB, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton, according to Carney.
“Build Canada Homes will announce a series of additional projects across the country in the months ahead, leveraging those public assets, public lands [and] partnering with the private sector to build at scale,” says Carney.
For the country at large, this program could help jumpstart affordable housing construction. Toronto is another area in which housing costs have soared over the past few years, in particular. Lowering housing prices across the country will also help ease the pressure on other regions, which are seeing their housing prices increase, though perhaps not as dramatically as the country’s largest metro areas.
Notably, no BC cities are on this list. So it appears the province will miss out on this initial round of funding. However, that does not mean there is nothing BC can take away from this announcement. The initial round of investment also promises to “partner on and lead developments of affordable housing projects, and by using public lands, take land costs out of the equation,” as the announcement reads. Land costs are a major reason why housing is so expensive in BC, especially in regions such as Greater Vancouver. If similar plans are implemented in BC by using public lands to construct housing, this could help lower costs.
The announcement states that “to streamline construction on public lands, Canada Lands Company will be transferred under the Build Canada Homes portfolio.” It remains to be seen what this means for dealing with local zoning laws, regulations and bylaws, which are often cited as other reasons why housing is expensive and takes so long to build in BC.
The other aspects of the announcement – the promise to use Canadian materials including lumber and to expedite timelines by using modular housing – could impact BC in some ways, too. Lumber is a major component of BC’s economy, and by promising to use Canadian suppliers in the Build Canada Homes program, this may lead to increased jobs and activity in the logging industry.
Modular homes are faster to construct, but only after setting up the initial factories that can create the plans and manufacture them at scale. This will likely require some harmonization of building codes and regulations across provinces. If this happens, BC could benefit from these developments as well.
Housing advocates are happy about the announcement, but also state that the scale and scope remain too small as of now. They hope to see the program scale up quickly and move faster to meet the country’s housing needs.
On the other hand, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says that Canada already has the know-how and resources to build homes. He contends that “What’s standing in the way is bureaucracy. And so, Mark Carney’s solution is to add another bureaucracy that will only slow things down. It took him six months to set up a new office, an office that has not built a single new home.”
The initiatives for rentals and homelessness may have some effects in BC.
On the existing rentals side, the announcement states that “the $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund will be launched under Build Canada Homes.” This is aimed at helping the community housing sector gain control of at-risk rental apartment buildings, according to the plan. This is to safeguard existing affordable housing and has been identified as an issue in BC by others. This program already exists, having been introduced during the tenure of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and is being brought under Build Canada Homes.
Build Canada Homes will also “deploy $1 billion to build transitional and supportive housing for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness,” says the announcement. These are key issues for BC, but what the details are about this aspect of the initiative remain to be seen.
“We have a responsibility to those less fortunate. We don’t build enough social housing, we don’t build enough affordable housing. So, it’s us filling our core role, but in a smart way that drives innovation,” says the Prime Minister.
For now, there are no immediate results to be expected in BC from Carney’s initial Build Canada Homes announcement, though the country at large will likely see some benefits. But future developments and plans may include BC, and the policies and procedures adopted by the program could help the province in other ways as well.
