Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson with Prime Minister Mark Carney at announcement of Build Canada Homes, Sept 14, 2025 in Ottawa. [livestream]
Sunday September 14, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
After touring a modular housing site today in the national capital region, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the new Build Canada Homes initiative by which to scale up housing construction in Canada including for the affordability sector.
He was joined at the podium by Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson. Robertson is also responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada and he introduced Ana Bailão (former Toronto City Councillor and deputy mayor) as the Chief Executive Officer of Build Canada Homes.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announces Build Canada Homes along with Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada and Ana Bailão, Chief Executive Officer of Build Canada Homes, on Sept 14 2025 in Ottawa. [livestream]
Build Canada Homes is “all about affordability while driving a new industry”, said Carney today.
Other measures to help the housing market will be announced in the upcoming federal budget, Carney said today.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we’re anywhere close to being back to affordability,” said Carney. He highlighted that nearly 50% of Canadian earners fall under the definition of needing affordable housing (i.e. with only 30% of income spent on accommodation).
The 30% benchmark for housing affordability is a long-ago benchmark in banking and credit that has not been achieved by a large number of Canadian households for decades now.
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About Build Canada Homes:
The new federal agency is about “building in a smart way that drives innovation and to scale,” said Carney today.
It will help double the pace of housing construction in this country over the next decade.
There will be a range of financial tools (e.g. contributions, loans, loan guarantees, equity investments) and projects will be greenlit in bulk (large portfolios of projects will be approved all at once), explained Carney.
“Build Canada Homes will help fight homelessness by building transitional and supportive housing – working with provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous communities. It will build deeply affordable and community housing for low-income households, and partner with private market developers to build affordable homes for the Canadian middle class,” it was stated in a news release from the prime minister’s office today.
“Build Canada Homes will transform public-private collaboration and deploy modern methods of construction, as it catalyzes the creation of an entirely new Canadian housing industry. It will leverage public lands, offer flexible financial incentives, attract private capital, facilitate large portfolio projects, and support modern manufacturers to build the homes that Canadians need.”
Already 88 federal lands are available (463 hectares / size of downtown Ottawa) to get started and more will be found, said Carney today.
The housing challenge requires “clear mandates”, tools to achieve those mandates, and accountability., which Carney says are in the new Build Canada Homes initiative. The new program creates “greater clarity”, he said.
Using Canadian resources:
Carney outlined a key problem of the Canadian economy that has prevailed for many decaides: Canadian businesses have exported raw materials to the United States – including timber, steel and aluminum that Canada buys back as windows, panels and prefab units.
“We are paying other countries to convert what we already have to things that we really need. No more,” said Carney. Build Canada Homes will adopt a new buy Canadian policy and strengthen domestric supply chains.
Six locations to start:
There will be six locations to start, from east to west: Dartmouth, NS; Longueuil (in Quebec City); Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
Those six sites will see 4,000 factory-build homes on federal lands with additional capacity on those sites of up to 45,000 units.
There will be a series of additional projects in the coming months, leveraging public lands in partnership with the private sector, said Carney.
Homelessness:
Employment and health-care supprot for people who are homeless as they are housed with the new program is the combination that Carney would like to see.
He says that Canadians are a compassionate society that cares about the homelessness challenge.
Presuming support in pariament:
During the media question portion of today’s announcement, Carney expressed confidence on moving ahead with approval of the legislation to create Build Canada Homes.
But he painted an asymmetrical picture (one of these is not like the other): “If we can do it with all the provinces, with the unions, with the private sector, with the innovators, with Canadians, surely the opposition parties can cooperate with us,” said Carney today.
Party politics being what it is, there could still be debate and resistance from the Conservatives, Bloc and NDP.
Carney added that “coming together and working together is what Canadian expect”.
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