Affordable Housing

National Post: Minister says new housing agency has no targets on number of homes it will build

OTTAWA — Housing Minister Gregor Robertson tabled legislation on Thursday to establish the federal government’s new affordable housing agency, but acknowledged Build Canada Homes has no set targets on how many homes it will build.

In December, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report that estimated the agency’s efforts would result in 26,000 directly funded units over the next five years. The federal government has said the report does not take into account the units that will result from Build Canada Homes’ partnerships with private developers and its $51-billion infrastructure fund.

Still, the PBO estimates federal spending on housing programs is set to decline by 56 per cent, from $9.8 billion in 2025-26 to $4.3 billion in 2028-29, due to expiration of funding for existing programs and cuts set out in Budget 2025.

“Canada’s non-profit housing stock has dwindled to only about four and a half percent of its total housing stock, well below the G7 average,” said NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan, in an interview with the National Post. “Countries that are doing well in addressing the housing situation is sitting at about 20 per cent.”

Click image or link to read the news story - https://nationalpost.com/news/minister-says-new-housing-agency-has-no-targets-on-number-of-homes-it-will-build

 

CBC: Government tables bill giving Build Canada Homes land acquisition power

The federal government introduced legislation that would enshrine its housing agency as a Crown corporation on Thursday, giving it land acquisition authority as well as the ability to partner with private developers — as questions remain over the number of units it intends to build.

The Conservative Party, which has previously been critical of Build Canada Homes for adding a layer of bureaucracy to homebuilding, did not indicate whether it plans to support the bill.

"The legislation was just tabled. I look forward to studying it in detail and I look forward to discussing with colleagues and I look forward to participating in the debate," said Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who represents the Edmonton-area riding of Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan criticized the bill for not defining the term "affordable housing," also noting in a statement it "grants extraordinarily broad powers to Build Canada Homes, allowing it to finance and partner with virtually any person or entity, acquire and develop land, own and operate housing and invest in third-party ventures, all with minimal constraints and limited parliamentary oversight."

She also said turning the agency into a Crown corporation "removes accountability from the minister of housing."

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-homes-crown-corp-9.7076495

Hill Times: Housing Minister Robertson ‘well regarded’ for municipal background, but needs a vision for housing, say sector experts

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s housing critic, told The Hill Times that Build Canada Homes has no minimum requirements for affordability in its projects, and that only the six sites that the government has announced will achieve affordability.

“Without setting specific targets at Build Canada Homes, there is no guarantee of affordability in future projects. According to CMHC [the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation], to retain housing affordability at 2019 levels, 430,000 to 480,000 new housing units need to be built annually over the next decade,” said Kwan in an emailed statement on Jan. 22. “CMHC will be cut by $860-million per year according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The government should commit to increasing Canada’s share of non-market housing to a target of 20 per cent nationally to make truly affordable housing available to all. The Liberal and Conservative approach of relying on the private market has consistently failed to bring down costs. Build Canada Homes is no different.”

The Hill Times reached out to Robertson to ask about housing and measures to address the housing crisis, including Build Canada Homes and Bill C-4, but did not receive a response by press time.

Kwan said she and Robertson “get along personally, but that’s irrelevant to the housing crisis that Canadians face from coast to coast to coast.”

“Build Canada Homes was supposed to signal a ‘new era’ of federal action. But the PBO shows it will produce only 26,000 units over five years—a 2.1 per cent bump in completions when we need transformative investment. The prime minister talks about doubling housing construction, but the PBO is clear: there is no roadmap, no strategy, no coherent plan to deliver it,” she said in the email. “We need real federal leadership that takes a continuum-of-housing approach—sustained public investment, non-market housing at scale, and a commitment to treating housing as a human right, not a speculative asset.”

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2026/01/28/housing-minister-robertson-well-regarded-for-municipal-background-but-needs-a-vision-for-housing-say-housing-experts/489512/

Nunatsiaq News: New Democrats do Nunavut

The federal NDP caucus met in Rankin Inlet last week for its winter retreat. The party’s MPs were treated to Nunavummiut hospitality, endured blizzards and heard about the challenges of living in the North, interim party Leader Don Davies said in an interview Monday.

“I’ve spoken to a few people who said that when you go North, you start falling in love with it,” he said.

It was the Vancouver-area politician’s first time in Nunavut. Davies has been interim NDP leader since the party’s former head Jagmeet Singh lost his House of Commons seat in last April’s election.

New Democrats are expected to choose a new leader at a convention in late March.

Generally, the NDP holds a caucus retreat a week before a parliamentary sitting. For this year’s winter retreat, its MPs chose Rankin Inlet. Parliament resumed Monday, following a six-week break that began before Christmas.

One purpose of the retreat is to get to know the people and places that make up their constituencies, Davies said.

Members spent the week meeting with community leaders and members.

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout couldn’t attend the first day because a winter storm prevented her plane from landing, she said Monday.

Her fellow MPs sat for several presentations she said were “received very well” and that helped inform them about “some of the realities that Nunavummiut experience,” Idlout said.

Davies said the issues faced by the rest of Canada seem to be “experienced more acutely in the North.”

“Learning about the history, the traditions, the pride of the Inuit, and everybody else who has made the North their home was really striking. It was eye-opening,” Davies said.

“We have housing problems in the rest of Canada, but nowhere else, I don’t think, is it as serious as we experienced in Rankin.”

Nunavummiut homes are often overcrowded. Residents told MPs they had been on housing waitlists for more than 10 years, Davies said.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/new-democrats-do-nunavut/

Island Social Trend: NDP MPs visit Nunavut ahead of 2026 House of Commons session

Before heading back to Ottawa for the upcoming session of the House of Commons, several New Democrat MPs spent a few days in Rankin Inlet to meet with Nunavummiut and hear directly from them about their priorities.

“I am proud to welcome my NDP colleagues to Nunavut, and for them to see firsthand the issues northerners are facing,” said NDP MP for Nunavut, Lori Idlout.

She hosted three MPs whose ridings are in BC: NDP Leader Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway), Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni).

“New Democrats are committed to hearing from community members and working with them to bring solutions to Ottawa,” said Idlout in an NDP news release on January 19.

“Throughout the country, families are facing a lack of affordable homes, high cost of food, and a need for more family- and community-sustaining jobs,” said Davies.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://islandsocialtrends.ca/ndp-mps-visit-nunavut-ahead-of-2026-house-of-commons-session/

The Hub: Trump says corporations are buying up homes. Is it happening in Canada?

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to block institutional investors like Blackstone and Invitation Homes from buying up single-family homes, he spurred renewed interest from Canadians wondering if giant hedge funds are also buying up homes in this country, contributing to the ongoing housing crisis.

On January 7, Google Trends showed the top search queries in Canada related to Trump were tied to his single-family homes decree and how that related to the Canadian real estate market. The fringe People’s Party of Canada X account claimed “foreign multinationals” were buying up homes in Canada. Popular YouTuber Moose on The Loose posted a video with over 144,000 views claiming corporate ownership of homes has driven up the prices of homes in Canada. NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan alleged that we are witnessing the “financialization of housing” in Canada, calling for a moratorium on corporations purchasing new properties.

But what’s the actual truth? And what’s the current situation in Canada when it comes to investors buying up real estate and contributing to driving up housing costs?

Click image or link to read the news story - https://thehub.ca/2026/01/15/trump-says-corporations-are-buying-up-housing-is-it-happening-in-canada/

iPOLITICS: Donald Trump wants to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Should Canada do the same?

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants Congress to codify his plan to ban institutional investors like Blackrock from purchasing single-family homes as part of a push to restore affordability to the housing market.

Canada’s housing market is generally more expensive than the U.S. and ranks as one of the least affordable in the G7 when comparing income-to-price ratios.

Would a similar ban in Canada make sense?

The federal NDP says it could help, but would need to focus on rental housing, blaming corporations and real-estate investment trusts (REITs) for purchasing low-cost units, evicting tenants for renovations and then jacking up rents.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan said Canada should impose a moratorium on corporations purchasing new properties or at the very least, limit how many units they can own.

“Financialization of housing is happening here in Canada,” Kwan told iPolitics last week, noting that Canada lost over 200,000 affordable housing units between 2016 and 2021.

“[Investors are] using housing as a commodity instead of a necessity.”

Kwan said REITs and other corporate investors are buying up affordable housing properties at such an accelerated pace that for every one unit added to the market, eight are lost.

She said the Liberals need to do more than just promise faster housing construction and urged the government to end favourable tax treatment for REITs that allow investors to recoup proceeds largely tax-free because they are treated as capital gains.

Kwan accused the Liberals of blaming newcomers to Canada for driving up home prices when the real culprits are profit-driven investors, and called for Ottawa to provide new funding for non-profits and co-ops to purchase distressed affordable housing properties.

Under this plan, non-profits would have a right to first refusal for these units.

The federal government has pledged funding for such efforts, launching a $1.5-billion Canada Rental Protection Fund in 2024 that would help the community housing sector acquire “at-risk rental apartment buildings,” with the goal of ensuring they remain affordable over the long term.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.ipolitics.ca/2026/01/13/donald-trump-wants-to-ban-institutional-investors-from-buying-single-family-homes-should-canada-do-the-same/

Media Release: Statement on Federal Housing Advocate's Report

Statement from NDP Housing Critic Jenny Kwan on Federal Housing Advocate's Report

After a recent damning report from the Parliamentary Budget Office critiquing the policy design of Build Canada Homes, the Federal Housing Advocate’s report today exposes major additional gaps in the Federal government’s housing policies, revealing that the government has allowed homelessness to escalate while relying on inadequate, short-term fixes. Across Waterloo, London, Hamilton, and Toronto, the Advocate heard consistently that people living in encampments face unsafe shelters, inaccessible housing, and constant threats of eviction. These conditions are the predictable outcome of inadequate policy development, underfunding, and enforcement-first approaches that criminalize survival.

The report’s recommendations make clear what needs to be done. Federal investments must be expanded and sustained with a human rights-based approach, including meaningful engagement with encampment residents, municipalities, and Indigenous organizations, and evaluation of programs like the UHEI to ensure lessons inform future strategies. Adequate pathways out of encampments require scaling up deeply affordable and supportive housing, integrating health care, and protecting people from forced evictions that exacerbate trauma and risk, especially during extreme weather.

The report also emphasizes the urgent need for culturally specific and trauma-informed Indigenous supports, gender-responsive housing, and protections for refugee claimants. Community organizations must be empowered and resourced rather than monitored and penalized. All federal housing initiatives, from Build Canada Homes to the National Housing Strategy, must embed a human rights framework, set clear outcomes, and provide sustainable funding to ensure real change along the continuum of housing, including setting clear targets of 40 percent of housing set to 30% of income.

Canadians are witnessing the consequences: lives put at risk, and systemic inequalities entrenched. The Prime Minister and Housing Minister cannot continue to defer responsibility. They must act immediately to align federal policy with human rights, expand investments, end criminalization, and commit to long-term, trauma-informed solutions that actually meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness. I call on the Prime Minister and Housing Minister to follow through immediately on the recommendations from these two reports.

National Observer: Budget watchdog sees modest boost in new housing from Build Canada Homes

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended "historical" housing spending in Budget 2025 on his way out of the cabinet meeting Tuesday. He told reporters he respects the PBO's work but added that "sometimes you need a bit of nuance."

Champagne said that future budgets will update spending priorities and no one should "prejudge" any of those commitments.

“You don’t take decisions for ‘29 in ‘25," he said.

“We’re going to do the work now and we’ll take the decisions that are going to be needed as we go forward."

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan accused the government of inflating homebuilding expectations through its budget last month.

"The commitment on this new generational investment that the government's talking about, it is barely a drop in the bucket to address the housing crisis," Kwan said before question period.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/03/news/budget-watchdog-sees-modest-boost-new-housing-build-canada-homes

Canadian Press: Budget office sees modest boost in housing supply from Build Canada Homes

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended “historical” housing spending in Budget 2025 on his way out of the cabinet meeting Tuesday. He told reporters he respects the PBO’s work but added that “sometimes you need a bit of nuance.”

Champagne said that future budgets will update spending priorities and no one should “prejudge” any of those commitments.

“You don’t take decisions for ‘29 in ‘25,” he said.

“We’re going to do the work now and we’ll take the decisions that are going to be needed as we go forward.”

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan accused the government of inflating homebuilding expectations through its budget last month.

“The commitment on this new generational investment that the government’s talking about, it is barely a drop in the bucket to address the housing crisis,” Kwan said before question period.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://rdnewsnow.com/2025/12/02/budget-office-sees-modest-boost-in-housing-supply-from-build-canada-homes/