Still, CMHC and industry analysts warned that 2025’s national lift in starts, including a 12% jump in Ottawa–Gatineau, came from a weak base and that construction momentum risks fading below long‑run averages through 2028.
Record rental building masks sharp slowdowns in Toronto and Vancouver, underscoring the gap between current output and the volume needed to restore affordability.
The Ottawa package offers one answer to that tension: lean harder into rental supply on public land, strip out local fees and insist on faster delivery.
Whether that would be enough to ease pressure on borrowers and investors in a high‑cost market remains an open question, but the direction of travel is clear – governments expect builders and lenders to treat accelerated rental construction as central to any mortgage‑market recovery.
Local pipeline meets national slowdown fears
Ana Bailão, chief executive of Build Canada Homes, said the agency is designed to “scale up affordable housing by bringing public land, flexible financing, and modern methods of construction under one roof” and that Ottawa’s projects “put that mandate into action… setting a new standard for speed and affordability in Canadian housing.”