- What Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson faces a tall task to solve a national housing crisis, pros say
- Why The federal Liberal government wants to ramp up residential construction
- What next The government wants to see 500,000 homes built nationally per year
Market pros are hoping Canada’s new federal housing and infrastructure minister has learned the lessons of past development strategies in response to a national housing crisis.
Gregor Robertson, replacing the outgoing Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, has been tasked by Prime Minister Mark Carney to oversee the implementation of an ambitious national housing strategy for boosting home construction and improving affordability. During his campaign, Carney pledged to facilitate the ramping up of residential construction within a decade to 500,000 new homes annually.
The Carney government faces a sizable challenge to reach that lofty target. According to the latest market findings from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., 67,000 units have broken ground across the country this year – mainly in Québec and the Prairies – representing a year-over-year drop of 2%.
Housing starts continue to trend downward in Ontario and British Columbia. In Toronto, with multifamily development waning, they have declined by 25% compared with figures from last April, CHMC said.
Robertson can point to his track record of residential development during his decade as mayor of Vancouver, from 2008 to 2018, when housing starts averaged over 5,000 units per year, according to municipal data – among the highest rates in the country.
Much of that was high-density condominium development. And critics say that growth came at the expense of affordability as property prices in the city spiraled out of reach for most residents.
But there is little agreement in the construction industry that the government will be able to successfully mandate affordability. Representatives for the home-building industry expressed concerns over inclusionary zoning and other policies proposed by the Carney government to produce affordable-housing options. Others strongly oppose the government’s plan to establish a new federal agency to spearhead social and other forms of non-market housing.
Construction pros have called on Robertson to focus on longstanding industry requests such as providing more funding for municipal infrastructure including watermains and new roads that are needed for supporting future development.
“I hope they will follow through on the good parts of the federal housing plan, and that’s putting money into infrastructure. I don’t think they need their own big regime to be able to do that,” a Toronto-based lobbyist for the home-building industry told Green Street News.
Andy Yan, urban planner and director of the city program at Simon Fraser University, has extensively examined, and critiqued, Robertson’s housing-development record while mayor. He would like the new minister to take a long look at how existing municipal land use and zoning policies prevent projects from breaking ground.
“If you look at Vancouver, there are tens of thousands of project approvals, and yet none of those developers are pursuing development,” Yan told Green Street News. “There’s lots of these examples across the country.”
Chief among these municipal policy concerns are development charges, which can add tens of thousands of dollars per unit to the cost of a residential project. Carney has pledged to halve municipal development charges for five years.
Developers have also long lamented lengthy approval processes that add months or years to development timelines. Carney campaigned on publicly reporting on municipalities’ progress to speed up approvals, allowing builders to apply for multiple projects at once, eliminating duplicative inspections and streamlining regulation for prefabricated housing.
