By Canadian Press

With housing plans, feds to target needs, links to immigration, Hussen says

Apr 14, 2022 | 10:51 AM

OTTAWA — Canada’s housing minister says federal funding to ramp up the pace of new builds will also look to target the kind of homes required to meet the changing needs of Canadians.

Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen says the budget’s plan to double housing starts over the next decade will aim to incentivize the construction of units needed by seniors who are downsizing, for example, as well as newcomer families.

Last week’s budget unveiled some $10 billion in new spending on housing, on top of the national housing strategy unveiled in 2017 that now carries a price tag north of $70 billion.

Much of new spending is focused on boosting the supply of homes that the government says has lagged behind the pace of population growth and helped drive up historically high prices. 

Canada’s population over the past five years grew at almost double the rate of any other G7 nation. The latest census figures show that of the 1.8 million more people here in 2021 compared with 2016, four in every five were immigrants.

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The government has unveiled ambitious immigration plans to boost the number of newcomers in the coming years, and Hussen says those plans could be threatened absent a similar jump in housing starts. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2022. 

The Canadian Press