Housing minister says Liberals to announce new measures to prompt homebuilding

Canada’s federal housing minister said his government’s announcement later Wednesday will roll out never-before-seen measures to tackle the national housing crisis. 

“Today is going to be the first time that we’ve done something like this in Canada, and I don’t want to spoil the news that we’re going to share a little later this morning,” Sean Fraser told reporters at the opening of the Liberal caucus meeting in London, Ont.  

“This morning’s announcement is one of a series of measures we’re going to be advancing over the course of the fall that are going to have a meaningful impact to get more homes built,” he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make make the announcement at 12:30 p.m. ET. CBC.ca will be carrying the event live. 

Trudeau and his government have faced increasing pressure in recent months to deliver a response to the ongoing shortage of housing across the country. That pressure increased late last month after the Liberal Cabinet retreat in New Brunswick ended without the announcement of new measures to tackle the crisis. 

Fraser told reporters in London that when his government came to office in 2015 the housing shortage overwhelmingly impacted low-income families but the situation has now “fundamentally shifted.”

He said that the crisis is now hitting Canadians with variable rate mortgages, who have seen their payments dramatically increase with the rise in interest rates prompting a need for a “renewed focus” to address the crisis.  

“It’s looking to build homes, not just for low-income Canadians in affordable housing projects, but across the housing spectrum,” he said. 

Building the workforce

That renewed focus, the minister said, would not contain a “silver bullet” but would require all levels of government, the private sector and the nonprofit sector to work together. 

It would also require measures that tackle some key problems, including:

Providing some kind of financial relief to builders who have projects approved but have had to put them on pause because of the impact of rising interest rates.  Working with municipalities to speed up the issuing of building permits, and the time it takes to change “zoning practices,” to make it easier to build. 

He also said measures will have to be taken to “grow the productive capacity of the workforce” by training Canadians to work in home building, and by recruiting newcomers with much-needed skills. 

“We’re going to be looking at everything we can do to build homes more quickly so we can make homes affordable for ordinary people,” he said.