HALTON REGION, ON, April 24,
2024 /CNW/ - One of the biggest pressures on people
right now is housing. Young Canadians are being priced out of their
communities. Families are finding it difficult to get a good place
to settle down. Rising rents and the high cost of buying a home are
making it more difficult for younger generations to find a place to
call home. We need more homes in Canada and we need to keep them
affordable.
Right now, governments across Canada are sitting on surplus, underused, and
vacant public lands, like empty office towers or low-rise buildings
that could be built on. By unlocking more public lands for housing,
we can lower the costs of construction and build more homes,
faster, at prices Canadians can afford.
The Prime Minister, Justin
Trudeau, today highlighted new measures included in
Budget 2024 and Canada's Housing Plan to build more
affordable homes on public lands – and make housing fairer for
every generation.
Canada's Housing
Plan lays out a bold strategy to unlock 3.87 million
new homes across the country by 2031, including 250,000 homes
through a new Public Lands for Homes Plan that includes:
- Reviewing the federal government's entire portfolio of
federally owned land and properties to rapidly identify sites
where new homes can be built.
- Making more land available for housing by identifying
and building on underutilized public lands as well as acquiring new
lands.
- Leasing public lands as opposed to selling them off so
public land stays public and affordable homes stay affordable.
- Launching a new public land bank and mapping tool to
help homebuilders more easily identify and navigate public
lands.
- Introducing legislation to facilitate the acquisition and
use of public lands for homes, in partnership with other orders
of government.
- Accelerating administrative timelines to make public
lands available for affordable housing faster.
We will also make better use of existing land. This
includes:
- Building homes on Canada Post properties. With a large
portfolio of land, Canada Post has more than 1,700 post offices in
over 1,700 communities across the country. Many of these sites
often house one-storey Canada Post buildings, which could be
leveraged to build new homes across the country, while maintaining
Canada Post services.
- Building homes on National Defence lands. National
Defence owns property in every province and territory, and these
properties are often underutilized. We'll redevelop National
Defence properties that are suitable for military and civilian use
and divest surplus properties that are not required for National
Defence operations but have the potential for housing.
- Converting underused federal offices into homes. The
federal government owns a lot of office buildings and half of them
are either underused or entirely vacant. We'll reduce our office
footprint, convert these offices into homes – especially in urban
areas – and prioritize student housing and affordable housing.
Alongside these measures, Budget 2024 will also:
- Provide $500 million to launch
a new public lands acquisition fund, which will buy land from
other orders of government to help build middle-class homes.
- Top-up the Federal Lands Initiative with $117 million to unlock more federal lands for
affordable housing providers, with a minimum of 1,500 homes.
- Make public lands available more quickly by scaling up the
Centre of Expertise on Disposals. With an investment of
$20 million, Public Services
and Procurement Canada will advance collaboration with key
government and industry partners.
- Invest $15 million in
the recently announced Public Land Bank and mapping tool. This
funding will develop a public land bank, including an interactive
geo-spatial mapping tool to better plan the use of public
lands.
- Support and expand the activities of the Canada Lands
Company through an investment of $5
million to build more homes on public lands.
We will continue to explore ways to leverage our low-cost
financing, including through our new Canada Builds initiative,
to encourage provinces and territories to build more homes,
including on their public lands. Changing the way we build housing
to solve the housing crisis will take a Team Canada effort, and no
single order of government, home builder, not-for-profit, or
community can do it alone. We need every order of government doing
their part to build the homes Canadians need.
We're building more homes and making sure they're affordable –
and it's just one of the things included in Budget 2024.
Alongside these measures, we're investing in innovation, growing
our economy, strengthening health care, and making life more
affordable so that every generation can get ahead.
Quotes
"We have a lot of public land in Canada that's underused or vacant. With
Budget 2024, we're unlocking this land for construction and
building thousands of new homes – so that you have a good place to
call your own, at a price you can afford. We're cutting red tape,
building more homes, and making the housing market fairer for every
generation."
— The Rt. Hon. Justin
Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
"Our plan is about fairness for every generation. Over the past
weeks, we've been sharing with Canadians our new and ambitious plan
to solve the housing crisis – and to help ensure that Canadians,
especially younger Canadians, are better able to afford their rent
or mortgage payments. We are turbocharging the construction of more
homes and making housing more affordable for everyone."
— The Hon. Chrystia
Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
"Public lands can help play a major role in building more homes
faster and making housing more affordable. With Budget 2024,
we are accelerating the process of converting surplus federal
properties into housing and enabling the construction of additional
housing units. In doing so, we will restore the promise of
Canada, where every generation can
afford a place to call home."
— The Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos,
Minister of Public Services and Procurement
"In order to overcome the housing crisis, we need to work with
partners across the country. And by unlocking public lands, we will
do just that – to help build more homes for Canadians at prices
they can afford."
— The Hon. Sean Fraser,
Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
Quick Facts
- In Budget 2024, the Government of Canada also announced it is urgently unlocking
five federal properties that will be leased to housing providers to
build over 800 new homes:
- Nearly 500 homes in Ottawa,
Ontario.
- Over 100 homes in Montréal, Quebec.
- Nearly 100 homes in Calgary,
Alberta.
- One hundred homes in Toronto,
Ontario.
- Over 40 homes in Edmonton,
Alberta.
- The federal government will launch a new Public Lands Action
Council this spring to spur collaboration and equip all players –
from government departments to industry experts – with the tools
they need to build homes on public lands. The Council will bring
together key stakeholders to identify specific lands across
Canada with high potential for
housing and take concerted action to accelerate construction on
these lands. This group will also help shape the federal
government's approach to building homes on public lands.
- A new Deputy Minister of Public Lands and Housing position has
also been created within the Privy Council Office. The Deputy
Minister will oversee and report on federal efforts to build more
homes for Canadians through the use of public lands, providing a
single point of accountability within the public service. An
appointment to this role was announced recently.
- On April 12, 2024, the federal
government released its ambitious housing plan, Solving the
housing crisis: Canada's Housing
Plan, supported by new investments from Budget 2024. At
the heart of this plan lies a commitment to make housing affordable
so that no hard-working Canadian spends more than 30 per cent of
their income on housing. The plan acknowledges the diverse needs of
Canadians and is centred around these three pillars:
- Building more homes by bringing down the costs of homebuilding,
helping cities make it easier to build homes at a faster pace,
changing the way Canadian homebuilders manufacture homes, and
growing the workforce to ensure we get the job done.
- Making it easier to own or rent a home by ensuring that every
renter or homeowner has a home that suits their needs, and the
stability to retain it.
- Helping Canadians who can't afford a home by building more
affordable housing for students, seniors, persons with
disabilities, equity-deserving communities, and eliminating chronic
homelessness in Canada.
- The Government of Canada's
Budget 2024 was tabled in the House of Commons by the Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on April 16, 2024.
- Budget 2024 announced the government's intention to launch
a new Canada Post Housing Program to help affordable housing
providers build on disposed or leased Canada Post properties.
Details will be available later this year.
- To help solve Canada's housing
crisis, Budget 2024 also proposes to:
- Restore generational fairness for renters, particularly
Millennials and Gen Z, by taking new action to protect
renters' rights and unlock pathways for them to become homeowners.
Learn more.
- Launch a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund
to accelerate the construction or upgrade of essential
infrastructure across the country and get more homes built for
Canadians. Learn more.
- Top-up the Apartment Construction Loan Program with
$15 billion, make new reforms so it
is easier to access, and launch Canada Builds to call on all
provinces and territories to join a Team Canada effort to build
more homes, faster. Learn more.
- Support renters by launching a new $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund
to preserve more rental homes and make sure they stay affordable.
Learn more.
- Change the way we build homes in Canada by announcing over $600 million to
make it easier and cheaper to build more homes, faster, including
through a new Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund and a new
Housing Design Catalogue. Learn more.
- Canada is already building
more homes faster and making housing more affordable through:
- The Apartment Construction Loan Program, a $40 billion
initiative that will be topped up with an additional
$15 billion in Budget 2024 to boost the construction of
new rental homes by providing low-cost financing to homebuilders.
Since 2017, the Apartment Construction Loan Program has committed
over $18 billion in loans to support the creation of more than
48,000 new rental homes. With our recently announced measures, the
Apartment Construction Loan Program is now on track to help build
over 131,000 new rental homes across Canada by 2031-32.
- The Affordable Housing Fund, a $14+ billion initiative
that supports the creation of new market and below-market rental
housing and the repair and renewal of existing housing. It is
designed to attract partnerships and investments to develop
projects that meet a broad spectrum of housing needs, from shelters
to affordable homeownership. As of December
31, 2023, the Fund has committed $8+ billion to repair or
renew over 150,000 homes and support the construction of more than
32,000 new homes.
- The Housing Accelerator Fund, a $4 billion initiative
that will be topped up with an additional $400 million in
Budget 2024 to encourage municipalities to incentivize
building by making transformative changes, such as removing
prohibitive zoning barriers. To date, the federal government has
signed 179 Housing Accelerator Fund agreements which, combined,
will fast-track an estimated total of over 750,000 housing units
across the country over the next decade.
- The Rapid Housing Initiative, a $4 billion fund that is
fast-tracking the construction of 15,500 new affordable homes for
people experiencing homelessness or in severe housing need by 2026.
The Rapid Housing Initiative also supports the acquisition of
existing buildings for the purpose of rehabilitation or conversion
to permanent affordable housing units, focusing on the housing
needs of the most vulnerable, including people experiencing or at
risk of homelessness, women fleeing domestic violence, seniors,
Indigenous Peoples, and persons with disabilities.
- Progress on these and other programs and initiatives under
Canada's National Housing Strategy
are updated quarterly at www.placetocallhome.ca. The Housing
Funding Initiatives Map shows housing projects that have been
developed.
- Since 2015, the federal government has helped almost two
million Canadians find a place to call home.
Related Product
- Backgrounder: More Affordable Homes
Associated Links
- Fairness for Every Generation
- Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
- Solving the housing crisis: Canada's Housing Plan
This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca
SOURCE Prime Minister's Office